CALIFORNIA          LIBRARY    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY   OF   CALIFORNIA 


CALIFORNIA          LIBRARY   OF  THE    UNIVERSITY   OF   CALIFORNIA 


LIBRARY    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY   OF    CALIFORNIA 


RSITY   OF    CALIFORNIA 


LIBRARY    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY   OF   CALIFORNIA 


RSITY   OF   CALIFORNIA          LIBRARY   OF   THE    UNIVERSITY   OF   CALIFORNIA 


OF    CALIFORNIA 


LIBRARY    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY   OF   CALIFORNIA 


NARRATIVE 


OURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 


COMPRISING 


\.  WINTER-PASSAGE  ACROSS  THE  ANDES  TO  CHILI ;   WITH  A  VISIT  TO 

THE  GOLD  REGIONS  OF  CALIFORNIA  AND  AUSTRALIA, 

THE  SOUTH  SEA  ISLANDS,  JAVA,  &c 


BY    F.    GERSTAECKER. 


NEW    YORK: 
HARPER    &    BROTHERS,    PUBLISHERS, 

329    &    331    PEARL    STREET, 
FRANKLIN    SQUARE. 

1  853. 


G45 


TO 
HIS  DEAR  LITTLE  FRIEND, 

SARAH  MARY  RICKARDS, 

OF  SIDNEY, 

JBfeteira  w  Stoimlrcit 

BY 

THE  AUTHOR. 


M57372 


CONTENTS. 


SOUTH   AMERICA. 

CHAPTER  I. 
THE  START  ..................................................     13 

CHAPTER  II. 
Rio  DE  JANEIRO  ..............................................     20 

CHAPTER  III. 
FROM  Rio  DE  JANEIRO  TO  BUENOS  AYRES  ......................     27 

CHAPTER  IV. 
BUENOS  AYRES  AND   THE  SURROUNDING  COUNTRY  ................     31 

CHAPTER  V. 
THE  SALADEROS  ............................................     46 

CHAPTER  VI. 
To  HORSE  ...................................................     51 

CHAPTER  VII. 
A  RIDE  ACROSS  THE  PAMPAS  ..................................     56 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
MENDOZA  ....................................................     79 

CHAPTER  IX. 
A  WINTER  PASSAGE  ACROSS  THE  CORDILLERAS  ...................   86 

CHAPTER  X. 
VALPARAISO  AND  CHILI  ........................................   HI 

A 


* 


CONTENTS. 


CALIFORNIA. 

CHAPTER  I. 
SAN  FRANCISCO  IN  THE  AUTUMN  OF  1849  ......  :  ................    134 

CHAPTER  II. 
A  TRIP  TO  THE  GOLD  MINES  IN  THE  RAINY  SEASON  .............    142 

CHAPTER  III. 
SACRAMENTO  CITY  ............................................    170 

CHAPTER  IV. 
MISSION  DOLORES  ............................................    179 

CHAPTER  V. 
THE  MINES  AND  THE  PEOPLE  IN  THEM  ..........................    195 


CHAPTER  VI. 
THE  INDIANS  OF  CALIFORNIA  ..................................   210 

CHAPTER  VII. 
LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  IN  THE  MINES  ...........................   220 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
THE  MUSQUITO  GULCH  AND  MAGUALOME  .........................   231 

CHAPTER  IX. 
SAN  FRANCISCO  IN  THE  AUTUMN  OF  1850..,  .  343 


SOUTH    SEA    ISLANDS. 

CHAPTER  I. 
FROM  SAN  FRANCISCO   TO  HONOLULU 258 

CHAPTER  II. 
HONOLULU 263 


CONTENTS.  xi 

CHAPTER  III. 
A  WHALING  CRUISE 288 

CHAPTER  IV. 
MAIAO 299 

CHAPTER  V. 
FROM  MAIAO  TO  EMAO  ..    319 

CHAPTER  VI. 
EMAO 332 

CHAPTER  VII. 
TAHITI 348 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
PASSAGE  FROM  TAHITI  TO  SYDNEY 374 


AUSTRALIA. 

CHAPTER  I. 
SYDNEY  IN  APRIL,  1851 378 

CHAPTER  II. 
THE  ROYAL  MAIL  FROM  SYDNEY  TO/ALBURY 398 

CHAPTER  III. 
A  CANOE  EXCURSION  ON  THE  HUME 414 

CHAPTER  IV. 
MARCH  THROUGH   THE  MURRAY  VALLEY 426 

CHAPTER  V. 
THE  ADELAIDE  DISTRICT 460 

CHAPTER  VI. 
SYDNEY  IN  1851,  AND  THE  AUSTRALIAN  COLONIES 483 

CHAPTER  VII. 

TORRES  STRAITS  .  .  .   502 


xii  CONTENTS. 


JAVA. 


CHAPTER  I. 
BATAVIA 519 

CHAPTER  II. 
A  RIDE  INTO  THE  INTERIOR  OF  JAVA 535 

CHAPTER  III. 
THE  TREANGER  REGENTSCHAPPEN 544 

CHAPTER  IV. 
TEA  AND  COFFEE  GARDENS — THE  TANCUBAN  PROW 565 

CHAPTER  V. 
HUNTING  IN  JAVA.   579 

CHAPTER  VI. 
LIFE  IN  BATAVIA 593 

CHAPTER  VII. 
JAPAN  AND  THE  JAPANESE  TOKO 604 

CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  EUROPEANS  IN  BATAVIA — CONCLUSION. 613 


NARRATIVE 

OF  A 

JOURNEY  ROUND   THE  WORLD. 


SOUTH   AMERICA. 
CHAPTER  I. 

THE    START. 

IT  excites  a  singular  feeling  to  be  on  board  of  a  vessel,  still  at 
anchor  in  the  harbor  of  your  native  country,  but  ready  to  start 
every  minute  on  a  long,  long  voyage.  You  no  longer  belong  to 
your  home,  although,  in  fact,  you  have  not  yet  left  it,  nor  have 
you  yet  begun  your  new  wandering  life.  You  feel  only  this 
restless  waiting,  this  not  being  able  to  leave  the  ship,  and  hour 
after  hour  passed  without  your  moving  a  step.  You  find  your- 
self for  once  in  your  life  between  the  future  and  the  past,  with- 
out a  present,  and  wish  at  last  for  that  which  you  have  so 
dreaded  before — the  moment  when  you  shall  bid  farewell  to  your 
home. 

But  emigrants  are  not  always  visited  by  these  emotions.  Most 
of  them  have  closed  their  account  with  their  old  mother  country 
— leaving  mother  country  also  not  unfrequently  in  debt  to  them, 
and  feeling  now  only  suspense.  This  spreads  over  the  whole 
ship,  and  people  walk  about  on  deck  with  dissatisfied  and  peevish 
looks,  grumbling  and  growling,  and  by  no  means  in  a  humor  for 
sentiment. 

New  passengers  arrive  without  intermission,  and  each  seems 
to  have  thought  of  getting  the  whole  of  Noah's  Ark  to  himself, 


14  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

so  completely  do  they  heap  the  decks  with  boxes,  and  trunks, 
and  chests,  and  are  quite  astonished  to  find  not  the  least  possibil- 
ity of  stowing  chem  away.  But  after  awhile  they  and  their 
boxes  disappear  in  the  lower  hold,  and  all  is  arranged  satisfac- 
torily. 

The  only  quiet  persons  in  this  chaos  of  things  and  objects  are 
the  sailors.  Used  to  the  confusion,  they  look  upon  it  as  of  too 
common  occurrence  even  to  deserve  a  thought,  and  step  now 
with  a  really  frightful  indifference,  through  and  over  the  passen- 
gers' goods,  which  for-them  seem  hardly  to  exist. 

"Wet  weather  makes  things,  as  the  reader  may  think,  only 
worse,  and  no  wonder  that  many  a  poor  wretch  coming  here 
with  quite  another  expectation,  looks  in  such  a  case  down  in 
those  dark  and  sultry  caves  of  the  between-decks,  which  shall  be 
to  him  for  so  many  months  a  dreary  and  solitary  home.  How 
many  intended  emigrants,  if  they  could  throw  down  such  a  look 
into  such  a  place,  when  their  hearts  were  still  wavering  between 
their  old  home  and  all  the  splendid  pictures  others  had  given 
them  of  far-away  lands,  would  shake  their  heads,  and  turn  back 
from  the  Rubicon.  But  now  it  is  too  late,  the  die  is  cast,  and 
onward  they  must  go. 

But  after  a  week  at  sea  every  thing  is  changed.  Incredible 
quantities  of  baggage  have  found  a  place  where  one  would  at 
first  have  thought  that  a  carpet-bag  would  fill  up  the  room  ;  and 
even  the  passengers  have  got  used  to  the  air  in  their  new  abode, 
and  if  they  do  not  find  it  pleasant,  they  feel  at  least  that  it  is  not 
so  disagreeable. 

Our  passengers  for  California,  on  board  the  good  bark  "  Talis- 
man," consisted  of  a  really  interesting  mass  of  people.  They 
were  chiefly  young  men,  who  had  shipped  with  such  golden 
dreams  and  hopes,  as  actuated  the  first  Spanish  adventurers  in 
searching  for  the  long-promised  El  Dorado.  But  we  were  a 
strange  company.  There  was  neither  a  woman  nor  child  on 
board,  and  the  passengers  were  all  armed  to  the  teeth.  One 
man  carried  a  long  single-barreled  fowling-piece,  with  a  spade 
on  his  shoulder,  and  a  blue  cotton  umbrella  under  his  arm. 
Many  indeed  had  spades,  and  the  arms  displayed  were  of  the 
most  miscellaneous  character,  including  swords,  guns,  dirks, 
muskets — ancient  and  modern — and  forming,  as  a  whole,  such 
an  assemblage,  that  they  looked  like  the  spoil  of  a  curiosity-shop. 


THE  START.  15 

In  this  strange  crowd  the  most  singular  figure  was  a  cutler 
from  Magdeburg,  a  man  of  really  Herculean  proportions,  with 
curled  beard  and  hair,  red  cheeks,  and  kindly-looking  gray  eyes. 
He  wore  a  green  hunting-shirt,  or  blouse,  light  pantaloons,  and 
a  white  broad-brimmed  felt  hat.  Round  his  waist  was  a  white 
shining  leather  belt,  nearly  five  inches  broad,  and  swinging  to 
this,  first,  a  long  straight  sword,  which  rattled  after  him  over 
the  deck,  secondly,  a  smaller  hanger  (Hirschfaenger)  which, 
though  of  goodly  dimensions,  looked  by  the  side  of  the  sword 
hardly  longer  than  a  table-knife,  and  close  to  this  Hirschfaenger 
he  carried  another  still  smaller  rhaspdirk,  about  eighteen  inches 
in  length.  On  the  other  side  he  carried  another  long  dirk,  with 
two  pistol  barrels,  and  a  proportional  quantity  of  pistols  and 
terzerols. 

This  person  was  attended  by  three  companions,  whose  passage 
he  had  paid,  and  whom  he  was  taking  with  him  to  California. 
They  were  called  his  satellites,  or  the  little  giants,  and  were 
dressed  exactly  like  himself,  in  the  same  green  hunting-shirt  and 
white  belt,  the  same  broad-brimmed  felt  hat  and  large  beard, 
only  their  arms,  pistols  and  knives,  were  rather  smaller  in  pro- 
portion to  their  own  stature.  The  giant  was  a  most  good-natured 
fellow,  letting  every  body  take  his  sword  and  knives  from  their 
scabbards  ;  and  he  wore  a  continual  smile  on  his  broad  and  not 
unhandsome  features. 

He  could  not,  I  was  told,  ride  on  horseback,  and  therefore  had 
on  board  a  small  hand-wagon  or  cart,  to  be  drawn  by  the  little 
giants,  when  he  got  ashore. 

It  was  on  Thursday,  the  22nd  of  March,  that  we  came  first 
into  green  water,  and  left  the  last  buoy  of  the  Weser  behind  us. 
We  skimmed  along  before  a  rattling  breeze  through  the  skipping 
waves.  But  the  motion  of  the  vessel,  particularly  right  before 
the  wind,  was  strong  enough  to  make  most  of  the  passengers 
feel  "  very  cheap,"  as  Jonathan  has  it.  Only  some  dozen  could 
keep  up  their  heads ;  and  while  we  passed  the  North  Sea  and 
Channel  flying,  all  those  who  a  few  days  before  had  been  such 
unruly  characters,  and  dreamt  of  nothing  but  gold  and  fortunes, 
were  lying  in  their  berths  sea-sick,  sighing  and  groaning  in  the 
most  distressing  manner.  On  Sunday,  after  a  run  of  sixty  hours, 
we  made  the  longitude  of  the  Scilly  Isles,  and  were  now  at  last 
in  the  open  sea. 


16  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

The  same  splendid  breeze  that  made  us  cross  the  path  of  many 
a  poor  homeward-bound  vessel,  working  her  way  against  the 
wind,  carried  us  to  Madeira,  and  there  kindly  gave  us  in  charge 
of  the  north-east  trade- winds,  which  wafted  us  with  their  balmy 
odors  through  smooth  and  sparkling  water,  to  warmer  and  more 
genial  dimes. 

As  long  as  we  had  a  rough  sea  and  cold  and  unfriendly 
weather,  there  existed  no  quieter  and  more  peaceable  people  in 
the  world,  than  our  hundred  and  two  passengers.  No  grumbling 
or  quarreling  was  heard  all  day,  and  at  night  the  sounds  under 
hatches  were  chiefly  snores.  But  hardly  did  they  feel  the  wind 
getting  duller,  the  air  warmer,  and  the  waves  settling  down, 
than  out  they  came  again  on  deck  to  eat  and  drink,  grumble 
and  quarrel.  There  was  directly  something  the  matter  with 
the  water,  and  something  with  the  bread;  the  meat  smelled, 
and  the  coffee  did  not ;  the  berths  were  too  small,  and  this  one's 
trunk,  and  that  one's  carpet-bag  were  stowed  away  where  they 
could  not  find  them,  which  of  course  induced  a  request  to  the 
mate  to  break  open  the  hold  directly,  and  overhaul  the  boxes  in 
quest  of  the  missing  articles.  Cursing  and  swearing  were  some- 
times drowned  in  laughing  and  singing,  not  unfrequently  inter- 
rupted by  quarreling  parties,  who  only  agreed  again  in  abusing 
the  skipper,  and  the  provisions  and  water. 

Our  voyage  in  itself  did  not  embrace  many  incidents.  On  the 
13th  of  April,  we  made  the  islands  of  Cape  Verd,  and  passed 
right  between  them,  leaving  San  Nicolas  to  larboard,  and  next 
morning  having  close  on  our  lee-bow  that  gigantic  and  desolate- 
looking  island  Fogo. 

The  rocky  face  of  this  singular  volcano  seemed  entirely  barren, 
and  we  could  not  make  out  the  least  bush  or  shrub ;  but  the 
rising  sun  shed,  from  a  clear  and  unbroken  sky,  her'  soft  light 
upon  rough  and  towering  masses,  and  overspread  them  with  a 
rosy  trembling  lustre. 

Among  the  noisy  passengers — noisy  in  play  or  quarrel — there 
was  one  man.  who  took  part  in  no  play  or  game,  and  spoke  with 
nobody,  who  hardly  ever  ate  any  thing,  and  what  little  he  did 
eat,  took  in  such  a  way  as  to  show  plainly  that  he  only  regarded 
food  as  a  necessity,  and  partook  of  it  merely  to  keep  himself 
alive.  He  always  tried  to  find,  in  some  corner  of  the  deck,  the 
most  deserted  part  of  the  ship,  and  there  he  sat  by  himself,  his 


THE  START.  17 

head  resting  on  his  elbow,  and  his  back  turned  to  the  life  on 
board,  while  his  eye  searched  the  horizon,  or  hung  listless  on  the 
blue  and  swelling  deep. 

This  man  was  home-sick.  One  day,  he  came  up  to  me,  while 
I  was  leaning  on  the  anchor  stocks,  watching  a  small  shoal  of 
bonitas,  and  addressing  me,  the  tears  glistening  in  his  eyes,  asked 
me,  for  God's  sake,  to  speak  to  the  captain,  and  obtain  permission 
for  him  to  leave  the  ship  in  the  first  homeward-bound  vessel  we 
should  meet.  He  said — and  he  sobbed  more  than  he  spoke, 
though  he  tried  to  hide  his  emotion  as  much  as  possible — he  had 
acted  thoughtlessly  in  leaving  a  happy  home,  which,  poor  as  it 
was,  contained  his  wife  and  three  lovely  children.  He  said  that 
he  could  not  forget  the  moment  when  he  bade  farewell  to  his 
wife,  and  when  his  children  hung  crying  round  his  neck,  and 
begged  him  not  to  leave  them.  These  thoughts  would  not  let 
him  rest,  and  he  saw,  he  felt  now,  how  wrong,  how  heartless, 
how  cruel  had  been  his  conduct,  in  so  relentlessly  turning  his 
face  from  home.  But  they  might  meet  a  vessel,  which  would 
take  him  home  again  ;  and  if  he  had  spent  his  small  capital  in 
paying  his  passage  to  California,  though  he  was  only  a  weaver, 
and  must  now  work  hard  day  and  night  to  make  up  for  lost  time, 
he  would  work  cheerfully  in  his  own  home,  and  for  his  own  wife 
and  children. 

As  the  man  found  more  and  more  words  for  the  utterance  of 
his  grief,  the  tears — the  soothing  tears — chased  each  other  down 
his  pale  and  care-worn  cheeks.  I  tried  every  thing  in  my  power 
to  give  his  thoughts  another  direction,  and  his  heart  some  hope. 
I  promised  him,  to  be  sure,  to  ask  the  captain  for  the  permission 
he  sought ;  but  what  good  could  it  do  him,  and  where  would  he 
find  in  the  open  sea  a  vessel,  homeward-bound,  the  captain  of 
which  would  lay  back  to  take  a  poor,  home-sick  passenger  on 
board  with  his  baggage.  He  became  calm,  at  last,  and  thank- 
ing me  for  the  kind  words  I  had  spoken  to  him,  as  he  said,  went 
down  into  his  berth,  and  I  saw  him  no  more  that  day. 

About  eight  days  afterward,  coming  nearer  and  nearer  to  the 
line,  Neptune  paid  us  a  visit,  and  got  paid  very  well  for  his 
trouble,  finding  a  great  number  of  greenhorns  on  board. 

The  festivities  created  by  this  incident  had  hardly  passed, 
when  we  saw  a  sail  coming  right  up  to  us.  It  was  the  English 
packet  "  Agincourt,"  Captain  Nisbett,  who  sent  a  boat  to  us  to 


18  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

get,  if  possible,  some  German  newspapers  for  a  party  of  German 
and  Dutch  passengers,  whom  the  "  Agincourt"  had  taken  in  at 
Cape  Town.  We  gave  the  young  officer,  who  came  on  board, 
all  we  could  spare,  and  half-an-hour  afterward  the  large  and 
beautiful  craft  was  only  a  speck  on  the  horizon. 

My  poor  home-sick  friend,  who  had  been  looking  eight  days 
before  with  painful  hope  for  such  an  accident,  though  no  ship 
would  have  waited  to  take  him  on  board,  stood  on  the  gangway 
in  his  old  place  as  long  as  she  was  in  sight,  silent  and  sad,  and 
without  moving  a  limb,  never  turning  his  eye  for  a  second  from 
the  strange  vessel ;  and  there  he  stood  after  the  sun  had  sunk 
behind  the  horizon,  and  spread  darkness  over  the  vast  deep,  with 
his  eyes  fixed  on  the  point  at  which  the  ship  had  disappeared. 
He  had  spoken  to  me  again  the  day  before,  but  no  longer  wished 
to  leave  the  vessel,  having  reconciled  himself  to  going  on  to  Cali- 
fornia. 

After  a  succession  of  most  disagreeable  calms,  each  of  which 
laid  us  up  for  about  a  week,  we  had  a  good  and  refreshing  breeze 
from  the  southeast,  the  common  trade- wind  in  these  latitudes ; 
and  this  breeze  brought  us  some  fine  sport  with  porpoises. 
Though  we  speared 'several,  however,  we  could  never  get  them 
on  deck.  The  fact  was,  that  when  the  fish  first  showed  them- 
selves, there  was,  ten  to  one,  no  harpoon  to  be  found,  or  the  line 
was  tangled  or  missing ;  or,  should  this  accidentally  have  been 
in  order — and  I  for  one  did  my  best  to  keep  it  so — the  ten  or 
twelve  stout  fellows  planted  at  the  line,  to  pull  altogether  at  the 
word,  would  get  tired  at  the  critical  moment,  and  all  our  care 
would  be  thrown  away. 

In  the  latitude  of  Cape  Frio,  and  not  far  from  the  Brazilian 
coast,  we  got  a  touch  of  the  tropics  in  a  tolerably  strong  pampero. 
The  proper  place  for  these  winds  is  the  mouth  of  La  Plata,  but 
sometimes  they  reach  up  as  high  as  this,  and  even  higher,  not 
unfrequently  doing  great  damage  among  the  shipping.  A  few 
days  afterward,  indeed,  we  saw  a  Brazilian  man-of-war,  which 
had  got  dismasted  in  this  very  pampero,  just  before  the  entrance 
of  the  Bay  of  Rio  de  Janeiro. 

For  several  days  we  lay  under  close-reefed  top-sails,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  had  the  pleasure  to  know  that  we  were  driving 
considerably  out  of  our  course.  A  great  many  of  the  passengers 
became  sea-sick  again,  but  the  storm  did  not  last  long,  and  on 


THE  START.  19 

the  10th  of  May,  we  were  once  more  able  to  set  sail.  On  the 
llth,  we  made  Cape  Frio,  and  from  thence  kept  the  picturesque 
coast  of  the  Brazils  in  sight  all  day,  reaching  on  the  morrow  the 
entrance  of  the  Sugar-loaf  Mountain. 

Early  in  the  afternoon,  we  beheld  that  beautiful  panorama, 
which  surrounds  one  of  the  most  splendid  harbors  of  the  world, 
and  the  closer  we  neared  the  land,  the  more  distinctly  did  the 
mountains  and  hills  gain  life  and  color.  Long  and  seemingly 
straight  ranges  grew  up  in  single  groups,  showing  separate  peaks 
and  ridges.  We  could  mark  the  outlines  of  vegetation,  and  even 
of  trees  and  shrubs  :  and  there,  on  those  beautiful  little  island 
twins- — Naya  and  Maya,  as  the  Portuguese  call  them — rose  the 
first  cocoa-palms,  with  their  slender  stems  and  graceful  leaves, 
nodding  a  welcome  to  the  foreign  visitors. 


CHAPTER  II. 

RIO  DE   JANEIRO. 

IN  the  tropics,  night  follows  immediately  on  the  setting  of  the 
sun ;  and  entering  soon  after  sun-down  the  Sugar-loaf  Gate,  as 
the  entrance  to  the  harbor  is  called  from  the  conical  and  most 
singular-shaped  hill  on  the  southern  head,  we  could  just  see  the 
lights  shine  out  from  the  opposite  coast,  where  the  city  lies,  and 
the  dark  outlines  of  the  nearest  ships,  the  whole  surrounded  by 
high  and  towering  masses  of  mountain  ridges. 

Inside  the  entrance  we  were  hailed  from  the  northern  shore — 
from  the  Fort  Santa  Cruz — but  the  voice  sounded  as  if  it  came 
from  the  deep,  and  the  words  being,  of  course,  Portuguese,  we 
could  not  understand  a  word  of  it.  But  our  supercargo  spoke 
the  language,  having  some  time  ago  lived  many  years  in  the 
Brazils ;  and  he  and  the  gentleman  in  the  fort  conversed  a  little 
while  in  such  unintelligible  roars,  as  are  heard  occasionally  at 
sea,  very  much  to  the  satisfaction  of  both  parties,  from  two  pass- 
ing ships. 

A  few  minutes  afterward  we  dropped  our  anchor  not  far  from 
a  brig  we  had  nearly  scraped  in  coming  in,  and  which  also  had 
German  passengers  on  board.  She  had  come  from  Hamburgh, 
and  brought  emigrants  to  the  Brazils. 

I. waited  impatiently  for  sunrise,  and  with  day-break  I  was 
up  ;  but  could  see  nothing  of  the  shore,  as  a  thin  fog  or  mist  lay 
over  the  water,  and  even  the  nearest  ridges  of  the  mountains 
were  but  dimly  visible.  Soon,  however,  the  sun  arose  ;  I  could 
see  the  red  orb  through  the  vapory  vail.  Higher  and  higher  it 
ascended ;  the  fog  sunk  down  to  the  water's  edge,  and  hills  and 
vallies,  palm-crowned  isles,  white  shining  forts,  and  shady  groves 
and  villas,  with  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  ships  and  skimming 
boats  rose,  as  by  magic,  into  view. 

"Where  can  I  find  words  to  picture  the  beauty,  the  grandeur 
of  that  scene,  as  it  appeared  at  that  moment?  Even  the  most 


EIO  DE  JANEIRO.  21 

indifferent  of  our  passengers  stood  on  deck,  without  uttering  a 
sound,  and  saw,  in  mute  astonishment,  a  new  and  glorious  world 
spring  up  around.  Their  first  amazement  overcome,  their  tongues 
again  won  utterance,  and  the  words — "  beautiful,"  "  splendid," 
"  glorious,"  were  heard  on  every  side. 

Our  principal  care  now  was,  to  get  as  soon  as  possible  on 
shore ;  but  this  could  not  be  done  till  we  were  reported  by  the 
medical  authorities  to  be  free  from  any  epidemic.  The  doctor 
came  at  last  in  his  long  yawl,  pulled  by  eight  negroes ;  and  as 
there  was  not  a  sick  man  on  board,  he  gave  permission  to  crew 
and  passengers  to  go  ashore  as  soon  and  as  long  as  they  pleased. 

He  had  not  left  the  ship — for  we  were  all  cocked  and  primed, 
and  perfectly  ready  to  go  off — when  down  dropped  our  yawl ; 
and  four  of  our  sailors  caroling  forth  an  old  German  song,  "The 
Brazils  are  not  far  from  here,"  pulled  us  ashore. 

The  city  of  Rio  de  Janeiro  made  a  profound  impression  upon 
us,  as  long  as  we  saw  it  from  afar ;  but  it  loses  a  great  deal  of 
its  beauty — and  with  how  many  things  upon  this  wide  world  is 
not  that  the  case — on  a  nearer  acquaintance.  The  streets  are, 
with  very  few  exceptions,  narrow  and  dirty,  and  masses  of  slaves, 
with  innumerable  colored  variations,  meet  the  eye  wherever  it 
wanders,  exciting  a  painful  feeling  in  the  mind  of  the  European, 
which  even  the  beauty  of  surrounding  nature,  hardly  visible 
indeed  in  those  high  and  narrow  streets,  can  not  soften. 

But,  however  much  we  might  have  been  astonished  at  every 
thing  we  saw — for  nearly  every  thing  was  new  to  us — we,  on 
our  part,  could  by  no  means  astonish  the  natives.  "  California," 
was  their  invariable  cry,  wherever  they  met  any  one  of  our 
party ;  and  as  the  harbor  was  at  the  same  time  perfectly  filled 
with  emigrant  ships  for  that  country,  the  word  was  constantly 
ringing  along  the  streets  whenever  any  emigrants  appeared. 

One  of  our  fellow-passengers,  a  little  Jew  from  Berlin,  who 
dressed  exceedingly  fine,  and,  as  he  thought,  exactly  in  the  fash- 
ion of  Rio  de  Janeiro,  became  at  last  so  annoyed  by  these  inces- 
sant exclamations,  that  he  wished  to  free  himself  from  them ; 
and  thinking  the  broad-brimmed  black  hat  he  wore,  the  only 
possible  mark  by  which  his  tormenters  could  guess  the  place  of 
his  destination,  bought  himself  a  new  and  genuine  Brazilian  hat 
— not  even  trusting  the  one  he  had  on  board,  though  it  was  ex- 
actly of  the  same  shape.  He  paid  an  extravagant  price  for  a 


22  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

rather  indifferent  hat ;  but  as  he  smilingly  stepped  out  from  the 
store  with  his  prize  on  his  head,  which  was  to  class  him  among 
the  sons  of  the  soil,  the  first  sound  that  reached  his  ear  was  the 
dreaded  and  detested  greeting  of  "  California." 

A  bull-fight  being  announced,  some  of  us  repaired  to  the  arena, 
to  view  the  spectacle.  We  found  a  pretty  large  arena  surrounded 
by  raised  and  guarded  wooden  benches  and  boxes,  just  white- 
washed enough  to  soil  our  dark  clothing.  On  one  side  were 
some  large  square  boards,  painted  over  and  ornamented  with 
homely  pictures  of  men,  behind  which,  as  I  found  afterward,  the 
bull-fighter  sought  shelter  when  hard  pressed ;  and  all  round  the 
ring  were  fastened  long  pieces  of  wood,  to  afford  him  the  means 
of  climbing  up  out  of  the  reach  of  the  enraged  animals,  when 
the  other  retreat  was  not  accessible. 

A  couple  of  very  indifferent  clowns  tried  to  be  funny  in  the 
centre  of  the  arena — one  of  them,  a  counterfeit  negro,  executed 
also  a  few  negro  dances,  but  nobody  laughed.  The  Spaniards 
looked  on  as  sober  as  judges ;  and  an  English  sailor,  a  little  the 
worse  for  liquor,  jumped  down,  and  tried  to  beat  the  clown ;  but 
made  off  amidst  roars  of  laughter  and  applause  when  he  saw  the 
doors  suddenly  thrown  open,  expecting,  of  course,  that  nothing 
less  than  a  couple  of  ferocious  bulls,  or  some  other  wild  animals, 
were  coming  in.  But  the  bulls  were  not  ready  yet ;  and  the  new- 
comers were  only  two  of  the  fighters  on  horseback,  followed  by 
six  or  eight  others  on  foot,  all  attired  in  gaudy  and  glittering 
dresses. 

Behind  them  sneaked  another  figure,  which  was  no  less  a 
person  than  the  fiend  himself,  who  had  been  promised  to  the 
public  in  the  large  posting-bills  with  prominent  letters,  as  El 
Diabo.  He  was  dressed  in  his  favorite  colors,  yellow  and  red, 
which  run  in  long  stripes,  about  three  inches  broad,  from  head 
to  foot ;  he  sported,  besides,  a  small  pair  of  black  and  tolerably 
soft  horns,  and  a  long  pliant  tail  of  the  same  color,  which  dragged 
behind  through  the  sand.  At  first,  we  all  thought  he  would  be 
one  of  the  most  valorous  combatants  of  the  whole  ;  but  as  soon  as 
he  saw  the  bull  coming,  he  slipped  behind  one  of  the  screens,  and 
appeared  soon  afterward  close  to  the  main  entrance  behind  the 
planks,  and  safe  enough  from  all  danger. 

One  of  the  horsemen,  clad  as  a  Spanish  knight,  and  bearing 
an  extraordinary  resemblance  to  the  Emperor  Napoleon,  opened 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO.  23 

the  battle ;  but  the  bull  showed  the  white  feather,  and  would 
not  fight.  A  second  bull  was  forthcoming — a  little  lively  animal ; 
it  soon  broke  one  of  its  horns,  which  were  all  guarded  by  round 
wooden  or  metal  balls,  and  was  unable  to  prolong  the  contest. 
A  little  black  bull  followed  afterward,  but  worried  by  a  number- 
less crowd  of  men,  and  having  his  dull  horns  rendered  nearly 
harmless,  he  did  little  to  enliven  the  scene,  and  soon  tired  out 
the  spectators. 

Finally,  a  kind  of  small  pavilion,  made  of  thin  lattice-work, 
pasted  over  with  red  paper,  and  having  four  open  doors,  was 
raised  in  the  arena,  and  in  this  was  placed  a  table  and  chairs, 
with  some  plates  and  knives  and  forks,  when  the  whole  party 
of  men  pretended  to  sit  down  to  breakfast,  while  another  wild 
bull  was  let  into  the  arena.  Of  course  he  was  expected  to  break 
into  the  pavilion,  and  upset  the  table,  and  scatter  the  banquet ; 
but  the  bull  was  too  well-bred  to  do  any  such  thing,  and  nothing 
could  induce  him  to  disturb  the  convivial  party. 

The  public,  wearied  at  last  at  seeing  none  of  their  hopes  ful- 
filled, and  the  sun,  at  the  same  time,  sinking  lower  and  lower 
in  the  west,  turned  their  attention  to  the  nameless  gentleman  in 
the  red  and  yellow,  and  demanded  with  loud  and  clamorous 
shouts,  his  appearance  on  the  stage. 

But  Diabo  did  not  seem  to  feel  the  least  inclination  to  accept 
the  invitation,  and  as  the  uproar  continued,  disappeared  behind 
the  planks.  But  the  spectators  now  grew  exasperated,  and  after 
a  perfect  revolution,  the  manager  was  obliged  to  bring  his  satanic 
majesty  to  light  again.  The  poor  devil  of  a  devil  had  to  come 
forth,  nolens,  volens ;  and  hardly  did  the  bull  get  a  glimpse  of 
his  red  and  yellow  figure,  than  he  sunk  his  horns  and  made  at 
him.  Diabo  had  no  time  to  get  out  of  his  way,  and  was  pitched 
by  the  infuriated  animal  bodily  to  the  ground.  The  other  per- 
formers now  jumped  between,  and  succeeded  at  last  in  turning 
the  bull's  attention  from  his  victim  ;  but  Diabo  had  had  enough 
for  that  night,  and  left  as  quick  as  he  could,  limping  away  amid 
a  perfect  hurricane  of  laughter  and  whistling. 

But  the  spectators  soon  grew  weary  of  the  new  bull,  though 
when  we  left,  ten  or  twelve  men  were  still  tormenting  the  poor 
beast,  now  nearly  in  the  dark,  for  the  sun  had  set,  and  night  was 
fast  drawing  on. 

Next  morning  we  hired  horses  and  galloped  out  of  town  to  see 


24  JOURNEY  HOUND   THE  WORLD. 

the  green  woods  and  plantations.  The  Brazilian  horses  are 
small,  but  lively  and  persevering  animals,  and  nearly  always 
move  in  a  short  arid  easy  gallop.  But  the  merchants  and  plant- 
ers who  live  in  the  country  on  their  plantations,  and  of  whom 
we  met  a  great  many  coming  to  town,  chiefly  ride  mules,  which, 
though  they  do  not  progress  as  quickly  as  horses,  certainly  go 
more  easy. 

The  environs  of  Rio  are  really  beautiful — the  quiet,  mirror- 
like  bay  with  its  forrest  of  masts,  and  the  boats  darting  to  and 
fro,  the  nice  and  luxuriant  gardens,  with  their  orange  and  coffee- 
trees,  bananas,  palms,  and  blossomed-covered  bushes ;  the  high 
picturesque  mountains  and  rocks,  which  raise  their  rough  and 
broken  heads  over  each  other  far  in  the  distance ;  formed  a  pic- 
ture as  striking  as  it  was  lovely.  The  scene,  moreover,  was 
animated  in  the  extreme ;  and  the  white  population  and  the 
slaves  were  equally  busy.  The  negroes  carried  their  burdens  to 
market  with  a  merry  song ;  the  cattle  driver  passed  along  with 
his  wild  little  ponies,  the  merchant  and  planter  on  his  mule. 

I  felt  very  sorry  to  be  obliged  to  depart  so  soon  from  this 
beautiful  country,  but  there  was  no  remedy.  I  had  paid  rny 
passage  to  California  by  the  *  Talisman,'  but  I  did  not  like  the 
passage  round  Cape  Horn ;  not  on  account  of  its  danger,  as  the 
ship  was  good  and  new,  but  I  shrank  from  the  idea  of  being 
boxed  up  in  a  ship  for  so  long  a  time,  cut  off  from  the  world,  and 
without  the  least  chance  of  seeing  anything  of  interest.  I  thought, 
therefore  of  going  over  to  Buenos  Ayres,  and  crossing  the  Pampas 
on  horseback,  by  which  I  might  reach  Valparaiso  in  time  to  get  on 
board  the  '  Talisman,'  at  that  port,  and  continue  my  journey  in  her 
to  California.  But  I  heard  such  a  bad  account  in  Rio  Janeiro  of 
the  Argentine  Republic,  that  at  first  it  made  me  hesitate.  I  was 
told  that  the  people  themselves  were  of  a  false,  treacherous,  and 
blood-thirsty  disposition,  and  to  make  matters  worse,  the  Pampas 
Indians  who  had  lately  rebelled  against  Rosas,  were  now  pouring 
across  the  Pampas  in  wild  hordes,  and  spreading  death  and  deso- 
lation wherever  they  showed  themselves.  Even  should  I  escape 
these  savages,  and  gain  the  foot  of  the  Cordilleras,  there  I  would 
be  opposed  by  another,  and,  in  fact,  insurmountable  obstacle,  as 
at  this  season  of  the  year,  the  Cordilleras  were  "  snow-locked," 
and  no  human  being  could  pass  them. 

In  this  dilemma,  I  remembered  that  when  I  intended,  in  the 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO.  25 

winter  of  1838,  to  walk  by  myself  from  Canada  to  Texas,  every- 
body told  me  that  it  would  be  impossible  ;  but  I  made  the  jour- 
ney, got  well  and  safe  back  again  ;  and  this  reminiscence  now 
determined  me  to  pursue  the  route  I  at  first  proposed,  regardless 
of  the  terrible  stories  which  every  where  met  my  ear. 

Preparations  I  needed  hardly  any,  as  I  should  take  only  the 
most  necessary  things  with  me,  and  it  was  only  important  to  be 
well-armed.  I  provided  myself,  therefore,  with  a  double-bar- 
reled gun,  a  brace  of  pistols,  and  my  old  American  bowie-knife, 
and  then  found  myself  perfectly  equipped  for  the  Pampas.  I 
took  also  a  good  blanket,  half-a-dozen  shirts  and  socks,  and  a 
grey  woollen-hunting  shirt,  with  high  water-boots  and  a  black 
broad-brimmed  hat. 

Luckily  there  was  at  the  time  a  small  Hamburgh  schooner 
under  the  flag  of  the  Argentine  Republic,  lying  in  the  bay,  ready 
to  start  for  Buenos  Ayres.  She  had  come  in  from  the  Cape  Yerd 
Islands,  loaded  with  salt,  only  to  inquire  the  price  and  be  off 
again  if  she  did  not  sell  her  cargo.  The  captain,  a  German,  as 
jovial  a  little  fellow  as  ever  stamped  a  quarter-deck,  having 
made  up  his  mind  to  seek  the  Buenos  Ayres  market,  I  soon 
agreed  with  him  for  my  passage.  The  fourth  day  after  my 
arrival  at  Rio,  we  were  to  sail,  and  I  was  left  to  enjoy  myself  in 
the  mean  time  as  much  as  I  could. 

It  would  at  that  time  have  troubled  any  body  to  find  enjoy- 
ment in  Rio,  the  hotels  and  taverns  being  all  crowded  with 
passengers  for  California,  and  the  most  extravagant  prices  being 
asked  for  the  humblest  board  and  lodging,  though  it  often  did 
not  include  the  accommodation  of  a  bed.  The  bills  for  this 
sumptuous  entertainment  were  always  made  out  in  reis,  the 
currency  of  the  country;  and  though  the  amount  was  only  a 
few  dollars  in  this  coin,  one  seemed  to  expend  a  fortune  in  a 
dinner.  Take  the  following  bill  for  a  breakfast  for  three,  at  a 
French  coffee-house,  as  an  example  : 

Chicken 2,000 

Salad ' 1,280 

Cucumbers    .  .  ? 1,280 

Bread , 240 

Oranges  . .  ,  .  ? 400 

Cigars  (six) 600 

Wine , 800 

6,600  reis. 

B 


26  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

The  whole  sum  amounting  to  little  more  than  three  dollars 
and  a  half. 

At  last  I  got  safely  with  all  my  things  on  board  the  "  San 
Martin."  Up  went  our  anchor,  a  light  but  steady  breeze  swell- 
ed our  sails ;  and  two  hours  afterward  the  splendid  bay  of  Rio 
de  Janeiro  lay  behind  me  like  a  beautiful  dream. 


CHAPTER  III. 

FROM  RIO  DE  JANEIRO  TO  BUENOS  AYRES. 

FOR  the  first  day  or  two  we  had  very  light  winds,  sometimes 
oven  calms,  but  that  did  not  last  long,  though  I  found  that  I 
must  not  count  on  a  quick  passage  of  five  or  six  days  as  the  wind 
became  contrary ;  and  on  the  21st,  a  flying  pampero  turned  the 
peaceful  swelling  ocean  into  a  wild  and  roaring  sea  with  moun- 
tainous waves,  which  tossed  about  our  nut-shell  of  a  vessel  in  the 
most  alarming  manner. 

The  pampero — for  I  remember  it  too  well  not  to  say  at  least 
a  few  words  about  it — is  a  kind  of  a  periodical  gale  which  de- 
rives its  name  from  the  wide  Pampas  or  plains  in  the  west  and 
southwest,  over  which  it  blows,  gaining  force  and  power  the 
further  it  proceeds.  The  first  sign  of  a  pampero  is  generally  a 
sharp  north  wind,  which  changes  gradually  more  and  more  to  the 
west,  and  hardly  has  the  wind  gained  this  point  when  a  heavy 
rain  sets  in,  and  with  this  comes  the  first  squall — the  first  puff 
of  the  pampero.  So  abruptly  does  this  sometimes  happen,  and 
so  rapidly  does  the  wind,  in  such  a  case,  fly  round  the  compass, 
that  many  a  ship,  whose  captain  has  been  ignorant  of  the  pre- 
monitory signs,  has  lost  her  masts,  before  a  sail  could  be  reefed 
or  taken  in,  and  not  a  few  have  been  wrecked  on  the  low  and 
treacherous  banks  of  the  wide  and  desolate  river.  When  the  fury 
of  the  pampero  has  been  expended,  the  wind  commonly  changes 
toward  the  north  or  southeast,  and  at  the  same  time  becomes 
more  moderate. 

On  the  26th,  getting  in  sight  of  the  northern  shore,  we  observed 
some  low  hills  in  the  distance,  and  on  the  27th,  made  the  Island 
of  Lobos,  so  called  from  the  immense  quantity  of  seals  that  fre- 
quent its  shores.  "We  saw  hundreds  of  these  animals  in  the 
water,  and  the  captain,  who  wanted  a  few  skins,  offered  to  let 
down  the  boat  if  I  would  endeavor  to  kill  some.  A  few  minutes 
later  we  were  in  full  chase,  and  I  shot  ei(rht  without  capturing 


28  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

one.  As  quick  as  they  were  struck  by  the  ball,  they  rose  out  of 
the  water  and  showed  their  bleeding  skulls,  but  sunk  before  we 
could  get  near  enough  to  lay  hold  of  them.  At  last  I  shot  one  in 
the  neck,  and  it  struck  furiously  about  in  the  water,  giving  us 
time  to  come  near  and  seize  one  of  its  fins. 

There  had  been  a  dead  calm  the  whole  afternoon,  and  the 
weather  as  fine  and  warm  as  we  could  wish,  but  we  had  hardly 
got  the  seal  on  board  the  boat,  when  we  heard  the  speaking- 
trumpet  of  the  captain  hailing  us  to  return.  Knowing  directly 
that  there  was  something  amiss,  we  pulled  back  as  hard  as  we 
could,  and  then  found  that  the  barometer  had  fallen  in  such  a 
way  as  to  give  a  fair  promise  for  another  pampero.  The  sailors, 
indeed,  had  just  taken  in  the  light  canvas,  reefed  the  topsails, 
and  made  every  thing  snug,  when  the  pampero  came  with  a  ven- 
geance. We  could  hear  it  roar  over  the  waters,  from  afar.  In 
a  few  minutes,  and  before  it  had  even  time  to  blow  very  hard, 
the  wind  changed  over  to  the  west,  and  a  quarter  of  an  hour 
afterward,  we  had  as  fine  a  pampero  again,  with  a  perfect  deluge 
of  rain,  as  heart  could  wish  for.  The  storm  howled  through  the 
rigging,  and  whistled  through  the  blocks,  while  the  few  yards 
of  canvas  given  to  the  wind,  were  stretched  to  the  utmost,  so 
that  we  had  to  lose  no  time  in  taking  them  in.  At  the  same 
time,  the  sea  rose,  but  the  storm  had  so  much  power  that  it 
clipped  the  waves  as  soon  as  they  lifted  their  heads  above  the 
main  rolling  sea,  carrying  the  white  and  glittering  spray  away 
with  it. 

Before  night  set  in,  that  small  island  we  had  made  in  the  morn- 
ing had  long  sunk  below  the  horizon,  and  we  were  drifting  on  the 
open  sea  back  again. 

The  storm  raged  all  night — the  rain  splashed,  the  sea  washed 
on  deck,  and  the  little  vessel  got  so  unruly,  that  I  was  twice 
pitched  out  of  my  berth.  The  next  day  there  was  very  little  dif- 
ference. At  table  'the  plates  jumped  about  like  living  things ; 
no  spoonful  of  soup  could  be  considered  safe  until  it  was  swal- 
\pwed,  and  if  you  wanted  both  hands  to  eat  with,  you  wanted,  at 
the  same  time,  both  legs  to  hold  on  by.  It  was  a  miserable  day, 
and,  to  console  us,  the  wind  blew  right  in  our  teeth,  and  drove 
us  steadily  to  leeward. 

On  the  second  day  of  the  pampero  we  beheld  a  most  singular 
spectacle,  which  I  shall  never  forget.  A  high  sea  was  running, 


FROM  RIO  DE  JANEIRO  TO  BUENOS  AYRES.  29 

and  the  howling  west  wind  lashed  the  waves  furiously,  while 
the  small,  but  heavily-laden  craft  worked  up  and  down,  some- 
times butting  her  head  right  against  a  perfect  mass  of  seething 
foam,  which  made  her  tremble  down  to  her  bottom,  sometimes 
rising  again  into  the  arms  of  another  roller,  when  the  voice  of  a 
sailor-boy  directed  my  attention  to  an  object  ahead.  The  little 
fellow,  who  was  as  pale  as  a  ghost,  stretched  out  his  one  hand 
toward  the  sea,  and  following  the  direction  indicated,  I  perceived 
a  large  wooden  cross,  which  swam  on  the  waves,  and,  raised  up 
by  the  rolling  sea,  at  this  very  minute  stood  nearly  upright,  not 
twenty  yards  before  the  bow  of  the  vessel.  The  next  minute  it 
disappeared  among  the  foaming  waters,  which  swept  it  past,  but 
in  a  few  seconds  it  stood  up  again,  this  time  half-covered  by  the 
wave,  and  then  it  disappeared. 

Fortunately  we  had  no  priest  on  board,  or  he  would  certainly 
have  seen  a  dreadful  warning  in  such  a  sign.  As  it  was,  some 
of  the  sailors  did  not  half  like  it,  and  looked  rather  gloomily  after 
the  swimming  piece  of  wood. 

Where  it  came  from  it  would  be  difficult  to  imagine,  but  prob- 
ably it  had  been  washed  away  from  a  grave-yard,  or  from  some 
secluded  spot  close  to  the  beach,  where  in  former  times  a  corpse 
had  been  washed  ashore,  and  buried  where  it  was  found. 

The  captain  reckoned  on  a  south  wind  coming  after  the  pam- 
pero, and  in  this  expectation  hugged  rather  close  the  right  shore 
of  the  Plate  River,  just  below  the  Punt  a  de  Piedras,  which  juts 
far  out  toward  the  east.  But  instead  of  a  south  wind,  we  got  a 
real  honest  northeaster,  and  were  now  stuck  in  a  corner,  and 
could  not  get  out.  Hence  we  had  to  crawl  on  short  tacks  slowly 
and  tediously  up  to  the  Punta  del  Indio,  opposite  to  which  a  light- 
ship was  moored — at  that  time,  and  I  really  believe  even  up  to 
this,  the  only  one  in  the  La  Plata.  Here  we  were  to  find  a  pilot, 
who  would  take  us  up  to  the  outer  road  of  Buenos  Ayres. 

The  closer  we  drew  to  the  light-ship  the  more  the  wind  bet- 
tered, and  we  had  hardly  got  the  pilot — an  old  gray-headed 
American — when  we  were  able  to  brace  up  our  yards,  and  run 
with  a  light  but  favorable  breeze  up-stream. 

It  is  a  nasty  water  this  La  Plata,  full  of  banks  and  dangerous 
shoals ;  and  we  had,  as  the  breeze  freshened,  to  keep  one  man, 
and  sometimes  two,  constantly  in  the  chains,  throwing  the  lead. 
A  vessel  has,  therefore,  really  to  feel  her  way  through  the  dan- 


30  JOURNEY  BOUND  THE  WORLD. 

gers  that  surround  her  on  every  quarter ;  for  no  shore  is  to  be 
seen,  except  occasionally  a  low,  dark  strip  of  land,  with  a  few 
scattered  trees  or  high  bushes.  But  the  old  American  knew  what 
he  was  about,  and  seemed  to  be  a  sober,  quiet  fellow,  even  refus- 
ing, when  he  came  on  board,  a  little  glass  of  absynth  I  offered 
him.  He  told  me  that  he  hardly  ever  drank  any  thing. 

With  the  setting  sun  the  wind  rose  higher  and  higher,  and 
after  dark  we  had  a  stiff  southeasterly  breeze,  just  strong  enough 
to  carry  what  sail  we  wanted,  and  to  go  up-stream  about  seven 
knots  an  hour. 

Right  in  our  wake  we  had  a  Swedish  brig,  which  coming  over 
from  the  east  to  take  the  western  channel  of  the  Ortis  bank,  could 
get  no  pilot,  as  we  had  taken  the  last  from  the  light-ship,  and  she 
was  now  doing  her  best  to  keep  us  in  sight.  She  had  hard  work 
of  it,  our  little  schooner  shooting  like  a  duck  through  the  water. 

At  two  o'clock  in  the  morning — an  hour  sooner  than  the  pilot 
had  expected — we  saw  the  anchored  ships  in  the  outer  road. 
Being  rather  close  upon  them,  we  steered  a  couple  of  points  higher, 
dropped  our  light  canvas,  clewed  up  the  great  and  foresail,  and 
five  minutes  later,  as  we  discerned  the  distant  lights  of  the  city, 
we  dropped  our  anchor. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

BUENOS  AYRES  AND  THE  SURROUNDING  COUNTRY. 

THE  roadstead  of  Buenos  Ayres  is  by  no  means  favorably  situ- 
ated, for  only  very  small  vessels  can  come  within  a  mile,  or  a 
mile  and  a  half  of  the  town,  while  all  those  which  draw  above 
ten  feet  have  to  stay  out  above  four  miles  on  the  river,  which  is 
only  very  little  better  than  the  open  sea. 

Our  little  schooner  rolled  so  heavily  on  the  high  waves  which 
rolled  up  from  below,  that  we  had  to  stretch  out  a  stay-sail,  to 
keep  her  a  bit  steadier ;  but  we  found  even  that  did  very  little 
service.  "With  such  a  wind,  boats  can  hold  no  communication 
with  the  shore,  as  the  breakers  would  dash  them  against  the 
rocks  at  the  landing,  and  consequently  we  had  to  stop  the  first 
day  on  board.  It  was  now  Sunday,  just  a  week  since  I  had  shot 
seals  in  the  mouth  of  the  river. 

On  the  second  day,  the  wind  abating  a  little,  we  saw  two  men- 
of- wars'  boats  pass  to  shore  ;  but  our  pilot  thought  it  too  danger- 
ous for  us  to  run  the  risk,  and  endeavored  to  persuade  us  to  wait 
a  day  longer.  The  fact  was,  he  had  some  very  good  reasons  for 
staying  a  little  longer  in  the  neighborhood  of  our  cupboard.  After 
all,  he  had  got  to  like  my  absynth ;  and  if  it  was  a  fact  that  he 
hardly  ever  tasted  strong  drinks,  he  made  for  once  an  exception 
in  my  favor.  As  soon  as  the  anchor  touched  the  ground,  he 
remembered  the  liquor,  and  came  down  for  a  dram,  and  from 
that  time  he  stuck  to  the  bottle  like  a  cork.  There  was  yet  a 
small  drop  left,  and  he  did  not  wish  to  see  that  wasted.  But  the 
captain,  not  wanting  to  wait  any  longer,  as  several  other  vessels 
had  come  in,  most  of  them  with  heavy  freight,  and  also  carrying 
salt,  was  urgent  to  go  on  shore,  and  determined  at  least  to  make 
the  attempt. 

The  old  pilot,  finding  that  we  would  really  stop  no  longer  on 
board,  took  a  parting  dram,  but  a  good  one,  and  declared  his 
readiness  to  accompany  us.  My  luggage  did  not  take  long  to 


32  JOURNEY  HOUND  THE  WORLD. 

ship.  My  gun  I  took  between  my  knees,  resolved,  if  we  had  to 
swim  for  it,  to  have  it  handy ;  and  away  we  went,  rocking  and 
jumping  over  the  rolling  waves,  with  a  stout  breeze  standing  stiff 
and  full  in  our  little  sail,  at  the  rate  of  about  seven  knots  an  hour. 
But  though  landing  with  such  a  breeze  right  against  a  rocky  and 
tolerable  surfy  shore,  was  a  little  dangerous,  we  got  safely  on 
terra  firma,  without  even  a  wetting. 

Up  to  this  moment  the  boat  had  demanded  my  entire  attention, 
and  the  sail,  as  long  as  we  skimmed  along  before  the  wind,  shut 
out  the  whole  view  toward  the  city  ;  but  now  the  sail  came  down 
by  the  run,  having  nearly  the  same  effect  as  if  a  curtain  had 
been  drawn  away ;  and  I  really  do  not  know  from  that  moment 
forward  what  we  did,  or  even  how  we  got  out  of  the  boat,  so 
entirely  was  I  taken  up  with  the  new  and  strange  scene  by 
which  I  found  myself  so  suddenly  surrounded. 

Right  before  me — so  close  that  I  coulcl  have  thrown  a  small 
pebble  througn  the  open  door  of  the  nearest  house — lay  Buenos 
Ayres.  The  shore,  over  whose  rocky  cliffs  the  breakers  drove 
with  resistless  violence,  swarmed  with  the  most  fantastic-looking 
figures  I  ever  had  dreamt  of.  Dark  and  sun-burnt  faces  with 
strongly-marked  profiles,  peered  at  us  from  under  black  or  red 
caps,  astonished  at  our  landing  in  such  a  surf  with  a  long-boat, 
and  perhaps  with  their  curiosity  excited  by  our  outlandish  appear- 
ance. 

Red  was  the  fashionable  color  in  this  country  ;  and  wherever 
the  eye  turned,  a  blood-red  poncho,  or  cap,  or  waistcoat  presented 
itself.  Even  the  captain  and  pilot  had  adopted  the  prevailing 
taste,  and  throwing  open  their  over-coats,  displayed  gorgeous  red 
waistcoats,  vieing  with  those  of  the  natives.  Round  their  hats, 
too,  they  wore  red  ribbons ;  and  red  ribbons,  emblazoned  with 
some  black  letters,  dangled  from  their  button-holes. 

The  picturesque  style  of  the  men's  dress,  heightened  the  effect 
of  the  lively  colors.  Among  the  lower  class,  the  head  is  covered 
by  a  red  cap  stuck  rather  saucily  on  one  side ;  round  the  neck 
they  invariably  wear  a  red  handkerchief,  and  from  below  this 
the  poncho,  a  large  square  piece  of  cloth,  with  a  small  slit  in  the 
jniddle,  just  large  enough  to  allow  the  head  to  pass  through, 
hangs  in  easy  folds  over  the  shoulders,  when  it  is  buttoned  up 
over  the  right  arm,  so  as  to  allow  the  limb  free  action.  Tasseled 
drawers  encase  the  legs,  and  another  vestment  is  fastened  first 


BUENOS  AYEES  AND  THE  SURROUNBING  COUNTRY.  33 

behind  the  back,  on  the  belt,  and  then  taken  up  between  the 
knees,  forming  a  second  poncho,  which  they  call  the  cheripaw. 
Shoes  are  worn  by  some,  but  the  gaucho,  as  the  gentleman  of  the 
Pampas  is  called,  despises  tanned  leather,  and  wears  boots  made 
of  the  hide  stripped  from  the  hind  feet  of  a  young  horse,  not  un- 
frequently  killed  expressly  for  this  very  purpose.  From  this  bota, 
as  it  is  named,  the  hair  is  cut  off,  and  the  two  first  toes  stick  out 
at  the  end,  and  just  fit  the  small  stirrups  used  here  in  riding. 

Thus  attired,  and  having  a  knife  about  two  feet  long  sticking  in 
a  belt  behind  his  back,  the  gaucho  hangs  in  his  saddle,  the  bridle 
lazily  resting  on  the  pommel  by  his  left  hand,  while  the  right  is 
propped  up  against  the  coiled  lasso,  which  is  never  wanting,  and 
he  watches  with  dark  and  attentive  brows  the  movements  of  the 
kringo,  or  foreigner,  whom  he  detests.  Then  throwing  himself 
suddenly  back,  he  claps  spurs  to  his  horse,  and  gallops  away  over 
the  beach  with  the  swiftness  of  the  wind. 

Even  the  houses  in  this  country  have  something  peculiar  in 
their  aspect,  and  their  dark  bricks,  flat  roofs,  and  small,  square, 
grated  windows  seize  the  attention  at  once.  I  could  have  stopped 
there  at  the  very  landing,  half  a  day  just  looking  at  these  quaint 
dwellings,  and  the  passing  and  repassing  of  the  denizens,  had  not 
the  captain  abruptly  told  me  to  pick  up  my  gun  and  saddle-bags 
and  follow  him  to  the  custom-house. 

We  were  not  kept  long  waiting  at  this  barrier,  and  I  took  up 
my  quarters  at  the  very  next  door,  in  a  private  boarding-house 
kept  by  a  Mrs.  Davies,  and  which  proved  to  be  a  good  and  com- 
fortable place. 

My  first  care  now  was  to  make  some  inquiries  respecting  my 
intended  route  across  the  Pampas  and  Cordilleras  to  Valparaiso, 
and  had  I  been  one  easily  frightened,  what  I  learned  would  at 
once  have  decided  me.  There  was  not  a  person  that  I  spoke  to 
but  told  me  it  was  at  this  time  of  the  year,  with  the  Indians  in 
full  rebellion,  sweeping  in  murderous  bands  across  the  country, 
an  enterprise  which  it  would  be  downright  madness  to  attempt. 
As  to  the  Indians,  such  desperate  savages  were  never  before 
heard  of,  and  I  was  gravely  informed  that  they  never  made  pris- 
oners except  young  girls  whom  they  carried  away  to  their  wild 
haunts,  simply  cutting  the  throats  of  their  male  captives  and 
then  letting  them  run.  Even  should  I  reach  Mendoza — almost 
an  impossibility — I  should  have  to  stop  there  at  least  till  Decem- 

B* 


34  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

ber  or  January,  as  the  mountain  gullies  and  paths,  at  this  time 
of  the  year,  were  impenetrable,  being  perfectly  locked  up  by  im- 
mense quantities  of  snow. 

Mr.  T.  Graham,  of  Ohio,  the  American  consul,  to  whom  1  am 
really  under  great  obligations  for  his  incessant  kindness  and 
courtesy,  did  all  in  his  power  to  try  and  obtain  some  more  cheer- 
ing information  for  me,  but  to  no  purpose.  In  short,  every  one 
tried  to  dissuade  me  from  the  journey,  but  I  determined,  be  the 
consequence  what  it  might,  to  set  out. 

Meanwhile,  I  devoted  the  few  days  I  was  to  spend  in  Buenos 
Ayres,  to  seeing  as  much  as  I  could  of  the  country.  Feeling 
generally  a  great  interest  in  emigration,  and  being  in  fact  com- 
missioned by  our,  at  that  time,  governing  central  power,  to  make 
an  official  report  of  the  capabilities  of  all  those  lands  which  I 
should  think  eligible  for  such  a  purpose,  I  took  great  pains  to 
ascertain  the  real  state  of  the  country,  and  made  several  excur- 
sions into  the  interior  with  this  view.  I  found  it  remarkably 
promising  ground  for  the  herdsman  as  well  as  the  farmer.  But 
in  truth,  this  part  of  the  world  presents  a  very  singular  appear- 
ance to  one  accustomed  to  our  northern  clime.  The  entire  want 
of  trees  in  the  plains,  called  by  the  inhabitants  the  campo,  is  a 
striking  feature  in  the  landscape.  As  far  as  the  eye  can  reach, 
nothing  breaks  the  view  on  any  side.  In  the  neighborhood  of 
the  town  there  are  low  bushy  hedges,  or  fences  of  aloe  and  cactus, 
but  farther  on  is  the  wide,  grassy  plain,  unrelieved  by  any  object. 

The  aloes,  with  their  flower  stems  and  large  fleshy  leaves, 
fringed  with  hard  and  dangerous  thorns,  have  a  very  pretty  ap- 
pearance, and  sometimes  rise  to  a  height  of  twenty-four  feet. 
They  also  make  most  excellent  fences,  even  better  than  the  cac- 
tus, for  no  horse  or  cow,  or  even  pig,  will  venture  to  crawl  be- 
tween them,  so  closely  do  the  sharp  leaves  grow ;  and  once  in 
growth  they  need  no  more  attention,  but,  on  the  contrary,  con- 
tinually give  forth  new  shoots  for  other  fences. 

So  badly  off  are  the  settlers  here,  and  even  the  inhabitants  of 
the  towns  for  fuel,  that  they  plant  groves  of  peach-trees,  and 
when  they  are  a  few  years  old,  cut  them  down  for  fire- wood. 
This  is,  of  course,  a  great  drawback  in  respect  to  their  making 
the  most  profit  out  of  their  herds  of  cattle  and  sheep,  as  they 
can  never  obtain  the  tallow  of  the  animals  so  cheaply  as  to  make 
the  boiling  down  remunerative. 


BUENOS  AYRES  AND  THE  SURROUNDING  COUNTRY.  35 

The  soil  seems  exceedingly  good,  and  wherever  I  inquired — 
and  I  found  round  there  a  great  many  of  my  own  countrymen  in 
the  province — I  was  informed  that  the  land  would  give,  with  the 
least  cultivation,  a  very  good  harvest,  and  produce  excellent 
wheat  and  sweet  potatoes. 

On  my  first  trip  I  passed  an  old  monastery,  now  in  a  most 
desolate  state,  the  walls,  in  many  places,  cracked  and  tumbled 
down.  The  church  was  plundered  of  every  thing,  but  the  wooden 
altar  was  yet  untouched,  and  on  this  were  hanging  some  tattered 
rags  of  the  former  embroidered  altar-cloth.  Here  and  there,  too, 
high  up  in  a  corner,  too  elevated  to  be  easily  got  down,  were 
some  old  forgotten  nosegays  of  artificial  flowers,  as  faded  as  if 
their  bloom  had  once  been  real,  and  which,  in  former  times,  had 
probably  adorned  the  shrine  of  some  old  saint  or  martyr. 

This  place  was  inhabited  by  a  company  of  Pampas  Indians, 
who  had  been  taken  prisoners  in  one  of  the  late  wars  with  the 
governor,  and  were  not  kept  here,  apparently  free,  but  in' reality, 
carefully  guarded.  Rosas  gave  them  an  allowance  of  beef, 
without  mustard,  every  day,  water  they  had  hard  by,  and  they 
found  a  shelter  in  the  old  crazy  cells  of  the  deserted  monastery, 
where  they  had  struck  camp,  and  stretched  their  beef-hides  in 
every  direction.  "What  did  they  want  more  ? 

These  were  the  first  Pampas  Indians  I  had  seen.  A  stout- 
built,  strong  race  of  people  they  were,  with  prominent  cheek- 
bones, low  foreheads  and  dark  restless  eyes.  Their  hair  was 
black  and  long,  like  that  of  their  northern  brethren,  whom  they 
resembled  also  in  color,  and  in  their  whole  appearance,  except 
that  they  were  not  quite  so  tall.  They  were  as  dirty  a  set  as 
one  could  wish  to  see. 

Turning  back  to  town,  I  passed  Governor  Rosas's  quinta,  or 
summer  residence,  situated  close  to  the  bank  of  the  river,  and 
surrounded  by  a  growth  of  tolerably  high  willows,  which  gave 
the  whole  place  a  pleasant  and  shady  appearance.  The  quinta 
itself  looks  like  a  large  colonnade,  in  a  square,  or  block.  It  is  a 
low  and  homely-looking  building,  surrounded  on  the  inner  as 
outer  side  by  columns,  which  support  verandas,  as  retreats  from 
the  heat  of  the  sun. 

Not  far  from  the  quinta  there  stands  one  of  the  most  singular 
garden-houses  imaginable.  This  is  nothing  else  than  a  real 
American  brig,  standing  high  and  dry,  like  Moses  in  the  bul- 


36  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

rushes,  among  the  willows  of  the  bank.  It  leans  against  high 
props,  and  is  provided,  for  the  accommodation  of  crew  and  passen- 
gers, with  a  wide  and  commodious  staircase.  This  brig  was  blown 
once,  by  a  southeastern  gale,  on  this  place,  high  up  on  the  bank, 
without  the  least  possibility  of  getting  her  down  again.  Governor 
Rosas  bought  the  hull  and  made  a  pavilion  of  it.  The  lower 
masts,  crossed  by  a  couple  of  spars,  remain  standing ;  and  the  in- 
terior, steerage  and  cabin,  has  been  formed  into  one  large  and  lofty 
saloon.  Formerly,  music  might  be  had  on  board,  through  the 
agency  of  a  barrel  organ ;  but  the  Argentine  gentlemen  who  were 
performers,  thought  the  machinery  would  work  as  well  backward 
as  forward,  and  spoiled  the  organ  by  grinding  the  wrong  way. 

Rosas  kept  at  the  quinta  half-a-dozen  tamed  avestruses,  or 
South  American  ostriches,  three  guanakas,  a  species  of  lama,  an 
Argentine  lion  or  puma,  and  a  tiger  from  Paraguay,  secured  only 
by  a  very  thin  chain  round  the  neck,  which  he  could  have  broken, 
I  am  sure,  with  one  bound,  had  he  but  tried.  But  they  had  cut 
his  claws  and  filed  his  teeth,  and  it  was  a  consolation  to  reflect 
that,  if  he  should  break  loose,  he  could  only  squeeze  one  to  death. 

Between  the  quinta  and  the  town  are  the  barracks  of  the  reg- 
ulars, and  I  stopped  here  awhile  to  see  a  parcel  of  blood-red  ar- 
tillery rnano3uvre  with  tolerable  dexterity. 

Strangers  are  allowed  to  look  at  the  regulars  at  exercise,  but 
when  the  militia  are  ordered  out,  every  one  else  is  ordered  in, 
and  nobody  dares  to  show  his  face,  either  in  the  streets,  or  even 
on  the  top  of  his  own  house,  or  behind  the  windows.  The  militia 
and  the  irregular  soldiers  are  really  the  most  desperate-looking 
characters  I  have  ever  seen.  Here,  would  be  observed  a  pair  of 
trowsers  and  one  shoe ;  there,  two  shoes  and  no  trowsers,  but 
merely  the  cheripaw.  A  handkerchief  would  be  tied  round  the 
head,  or  it  would  be  buried  in  a  red  cap ;  while  the  eye  fell  on 
uniforms  of  all  colors,  or  no  uniforms  at  all,  guns  of  all  sizes,  and 
many  without  guns,  and  ranged  on  every  side. 

It  formed,  some  time  ago,  one  of  the  greatest  amusements  of 
Europeans  to  watch  this  array,  and  every  mano3uvre  provoked 
new  laughter.  But  Rosas  did  not  like  this  ;  and  as  he  could  do 
with  his  republicans  whatever  he  pleased,  he  passed  a  bill  to 
have  every  store  shut  while  the  militia  were  out,  the  pretext 
being  that  the  foreigners  drove  their  trade  with  advantage  while 
the  citizens  of  the  republic  were  on  duty  in  the  service  of  their 


BUENOS  AYRES  AND  THE  SURROUNDING  COUNTRY.  37 

country.  So  far,  this  law  would  only  have  been  just,  but  Rosas 
went  further,  shutting  up  every  body  in  their  houses ;  and  who- 
ever was  found  abroad,  was  liable  to  be  taken  up  and  punished 
by  fine  or  imprisonment.  Even  travelers  had  to  turn  in,  as  soon 
as  they  came  to  a  place  where  the  militia  were  training ;  the 
herdsman  had  to  leave  his  cattle,  and  the  farmer  his  plough, 
and  only  those  boys  who  took  care  of  the  sheep,  were  allowed  to 
remain  in  the  fields. 

Rosas  was  a  severe  dictator,  and  did  not  allow  much  joking 
with  his  laws,  but  it  may  be  urged  in  his  favor  that  he  had  a 
wild  and  rough  set  of  subjects,  and  it  required  a  strong  hand  to 
keep  them  in  order.  A  stronger  or  more  pitiless  one  than  his  it 
would  have  been  hard  to  find,  even  in  that  wild  country. 

Rosas  took  very  good  care  that  they  should  never  forget  whose 
government  they  were  under,  and  as  it  had  grown  a  perfect  law 
for  the  citizens  of  the  republic  to  wear  the  red  waistcoat,  so  they 
were  obliged  to  assume  also  a  red  ribbon  at  the  button-hole,  in- 
scribed with  this  device  : 

"  Viva  la  confederacion  Argentina  mueran  ]os  salcajes,  asque- 
rosos,  immundos  Unitarios."  (The  Argentine  republic  shall  pros- 
per, but  perish  the  savage,  dirty,  undergrown  Unitarios.)  A  fine 
sentiment,  at  any  rate. 

This  motto  meets  the  eye  of  the  stranger  every  where.  There  is 
no  proclamation  issued  without  this  being  at  the  head  of  it ;  no 
paper  is  printed,  no  public  or  private  advertisement  appears,  with- 
out the  threatening  words.  They  are  stamped  on  the  theatre 
bills,  and  present  themselves  five  or  six  times  in  every  almanac. 
They  must  be  the  first  words  in  every  written  document ;  and 
even  on  every  letter  a  citizen  of  the  Argentine  republic  sends  by 
the  post,  he  has  to  write  on  the  address  his  "  viva"  for  the  repub- 
lic, and  his  "  mueran"  for  her  enemies — it  may  be  for  himself. 

The  life  in  the  streets  of  the  city  possesses  much  interest  for 
the  stranger.  The  wild  forms  of  the  gauchos  (as  the  inhabitants 
of  the  country  are  called)  with  their  flowing  kerchiefs  over  their 
heads,  and  picturesque  ponchos,  lend  a  peculiar  aspect  to  the 
scene.  Large  clumsy  waggons,  drawn  by  oxen ,  roll  slowly  along, 
with  their  gigantic  wheels  often  ten  feet  high.  Every  morning 
gaucho  boys  corne  early  to  town  on  horseback,  with  two  tin  cans 
full  of  milk,  but  having  one  naked  leg  hanging  down  from  the 
sheep-skin  saddle,  and  the  other  foot  drawn  up  under  their  seat. 


38  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

There  are  also  ragged  black  soldiers,  sometimes  real  specimens, 
who  might  be  kept  among  the  curiosities  of  a  cabinet  in  alcohol ; 
for  Rosas  liked  his  negro  military.  At  the  same  time,  the  predi- 
lection of  every  one  for  a  glaring  red  color — the  low  houses  with 
their  grated  windows,  and  those  slender  beautiful  forms  which 
glide,  tightly  wrapped  in  their  mantillas,  with  light  and  elastic 
steps  through  the  very  centre  of  dangerous -looking  groups  of  dark- 
visaged  men,  with  their  long  knives  sticking  in  their  belts — all 
this  often  seemed  to  me  as  if  it  were  not  real,  but  only  a  gaily- 
colored  picture  created  by  the  imagination.  Recovering  from 
such  a  trance,  I  would  feel  my  blood  thrill  quicker  and  more 
briskly  through  my  veins,  if  by  a  lightning  thought  I  aroused 
myself  to  the  fact  that  I  was  really,  in  the  very  midst  of  this 
stirring  life,  and  able  to  choose  my  own  course  of  action. 

With  the  kind  help  of  Mr.  Graham,  who  never  wearied  of 
doing  me  a  favor  when  an  opportunity  occurred,  I  found  an  old 
Spaniard,  who  had  lived  a  long  time  in  Mendoza,  a  small  place 
at  the  very  foot  of  the  Cordilleras ;  and  who,  though  he  was 
ignorant  of  the  present  state  of  the  interior,  as  far  as  it  was  in- 
fested by  the  Pampas  Indians,  informed  me  that  if  I  could  get  to 
Mendoza,  there  was  even  at  this  advanced  season,  a  chance  of 
my  being  able  to  cross  the  snowy  mountains,  should  I  not  be 
overtaken  on  the  way  by  a  snow-storm.  The  correo  (courier) 
from  Chili,  he  told  me,  sometimes  went  over  in  winter.  I  might 
do  the  same,  if  I  could  find  a  guide,  and  was  determined  to  brave 
.  the  worst. 

This  was  all  I  wanted,  and  with  a  lightened  heart  I  com- 
menced my  few  preparations  for  the  excursion,  having  learned 
that  in  about  eight  or  ten  days  a  correo  would  start  from  this 
place  to  Mendoza,  who  most  probably  would  like  very  much,  in 
the  unsettled  state  of  the  interior,  to  have  an  armed  companion. 
Through  an  English  gentleman,  I  got  acquainted  with  this  old 
Argentinian,  and  made  a  bargain  with  him  by  which  he  was  to 
find  fresh  horses  for  me  on  the  road,  and  pay  at  the  different 
stations  for  my  board.  The  distance  was  three  hundred  and  nine- 
teen leagues,  of  not  quite  three  miles,  for  which  I  gave  him  four 
ounces,  in  value  at  that  time  just  sixty-four  dollars  ;  and  though 
he  had  certainly  a  very  fair  profit,  it  is  always  better  to  be  cheated 
by  one  person,  than  to  undergo  that  process  at  every  station,  for 
cheated  the  traveler  will  find  himself,  manage  how  he  may.  But 


BUENOS  AYRES  AND  THE  SURROUNDING  COUNTRY.  39 

though  he  found  the  horses,  I  had  to  provide  my  own  saddle  and 
bridle  ;  and  I  followed  the  advice  of  some  experienced  old  stagers 
— among  others  my  own  landlord,  who  told  me  always  to  prefer 
for  such  a  long  ride,  an  old  saddle  to  a  new  one,  as  it  was  more 
smooth  and  pliable,  and  would  ride  a  great  deal  better  than  the 
best  new  saddle.  It  had,  moreover,  the  additional  advantage  of 
being  cheaper,  and  I  got  a  tolerably  good  recado,  with  bridle,  for 
seven  dollars.  I  bought  also  a  pair  of  the  colossal  Argentine 
spurs  for  the  benefit  of  the  different  horses ;  and  furnished  with 
the  native  revenca — a  broad  and  heavy  whip,  cut  out  of  a  strip 
of  raw  leather,  with  a  short  handle  to  it,  and  an  iron  ring — I 
Was  prepared  to  set  forth. 

One  difficulty  I  had  yet  to  overcome,  and  that  was  a  most 
serious  one — I  did  not  understand  the  Spanish  language ;  and 
having  only  thought  of  this  voyage  a  few  weeks  ago,  had  certainly 
had  no  time  to  study  it.  What  was  to  become  of  me,  after  my 
first  start  with  the  old  correo,  who,  of  course,  had  not  the  least 
idea  of  any  other  language  in  Christendom,  I  could  not  imagine  ; 
but  I  thought  it  worse  than  useless  to  make  myself  uneasy  before 
the  time.  I  had  not  yet  tried  what  I  could  do,  and  there  is 
always  a  way  to  make  one's  self  understood,  if  one  will  only  try. 

The  correo  thought  of  starting  about  the  16th  or  17th,  and  I 
had  yet  time  to  look  round  in  the  new  place  I  was  in.  To  lose 
as  little  as  possible  of  this  I  accepted  with  the  greatest  pleasure 
an  invitation  from  one  of  my  countrymen,  a  merchant  at  Buenos 
Ayres  and  Bremen  consul,  to  accompany  him  to  his  estancia. 

We  started  on  Saturday  afternoon  to  have  the  whole  Sunday 
before  us,  and  the  distance  was  only  about  three  leagues.  The 
first  two  leagues  we  found  ourselves,  with  very  little  interruption, 
hemmed  in  on  both  sides  by  hedges  and  small  plantations ;  and 
though  some  places  here  looked  peculiar  enough,  I  felt  uncom- 
fortable as  long  as  I  saw  so  many  signs  of  civilization  around  me. 
I  wanted  to  reach  the  campo,  the  free  Pampas ;  and  got  tired  of 
seeing  nothing  but  habitations,  fields,  and  gardens. 

Many  parts  of  the  road,  principally  in  low  muddy  places,  were 
paved  with  sheep's  skulls  ;  even  some  fields  were  fenced  in  along 
the  road,  frequently  for  a  hundred  yards  or  more,  with  nothing 
but  cattle  skulls — the  horns  all  stuck  up  with  perfect  regularity, 
to  give  the  whole  a  finish.  Dead  cattle,  sheep  and  horses,  lay  at 
the  same  time  every  where  on  the  road — very  frequently  in  the 


40  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

middle  of  it — impregnating  the  air  with  a  poisonous  stench. — 
Buenos  Ayres ! 

The  horses  were  not  the  least  alarmed  at  this  litter  of  car- 
cases. In  Europe  they  would  have  shied  or  refused  to  pass,  but 
here  they  were  so  used  to  the  thing  that  they  would  leap,  with 
the  greatest  indifference,  right  over  what  might  be  their  dead 
kindred.  Cattle  graze  close  by,  where  some  of  their  own  herd 
lie  rotting,  and  show  not  the  least  concern  either  for  their  dead 
comrades,  or  their  own  noses. 

Leaving  the  gardens  and  fields,  we  still  kept  in  sight  of  some 
low  bushes  or  small  plantations  of  peach,  paradise,  and  other 
crippled  trees ;  but  a  few  leagues  further  on,  even  these  disap- 
peared, and  left  one  wide  unbroken  ocean-like  plain,  affording 
pasture  to  innumerable  heads  of  cattle,  and  the  scene  of  many  a 
bloody  battle  fought  to  free  and  to  subdue  a  people. 

After  a  couple  of  hours'  easy  gallop  we  reached  the  place  of 
our  destination,  and  I  found  myself,  for  the  first  time,  at  a  real 
estancia  on  the  campo  of  the  Plate  river. 

These  estancia  s,  as  they  are  called — farm  would  not  express 
the  real  meaning  of  the  word — are  only  in  some  cases  plantations, 
and  in  the  interior,  most  of  them  serve  but  to  give  the  cattle- 
holders  and  their  peons  or  servants  a  shelter.  The  peons  fre- 
quently have  hardly  that,  but  live  in  inclosures  used  to  pen  their 
herds.  Often  country-people  do  not  even  try  to  raise  vegetables 
for  their  own  use.  Meat  is  their  chief  nourishment,  and  the 
Argentinian  may  be  said  to  eat  meat  with  meat. 

What  the  cocoa-palm  is  to  the  South  Sea  Islander,  his  herds 
are,  in  most  respects,  to  the  gaucho.  The  hides  he  uses  in 
divers  ways — as  a  thatch  for  his  hut  and  a  coverlet  for  his  bed, 
for  his  corn-crib  and  ropes,  his  saddle  and  bridle,  his  boots  and 
sacks.  The  meat  is  nearly  his  only  nourishment,  and  even  with 
the  dung  and  bones  he  kindles  his  fire  and  cooks  his  meals. 

But  here  the  difference  between  a  country  whose  inhabitants 
live  on  vegetables,  and  one  where  meat  forms  the  main,  and 
often  only  food,  becomes  evident.  These  estancias  are  entirely 
wanting  in  the  homely,  quiet,  and  pleasing  outlines  of  a  farm, 
and  the  cleanly  cheerful  life,  whose  main  stock  of  provisions  is 
vegetables,  is  missing  here ;  while  on  every  side  death  and  pu- 
trefaction betray  the  rough  trade  of  the  cattle-breeder. 

Wherever  the  eye  ranges,  round  the  dwellings  of  these  estan- 


BUENOS  AYRES  AND  THE  SURROUNDING  COUNTRY.  41 

cia  holders,  it  meets  or  marks  the  traces  of  butchered  or  fallen 
animals.  In  every  direction  you  see  stretched  hides,  piled-up  in- 
testines, skulls,  horns,  hoofs,  bones,  and  pools  or  signs  of  blood. 
Thousands  and  thousands  of  buzzards,  hawks,  and  sea-gulls  flap 
their  wings  over  these  places,  or  stand  overgorged,  too  lazy  to 
fly,  on  some  old  skeletons  in  the  neighborhood.  A  stranger's 
nose  has  really  first  to  get  used  to  the  disgusting  fresh  scent  of 
meat  and  blood,  let  alone  putrefaction. 

Even  the  elsewhere  peaceful  and  herbivorous  domestic  animals, 
change  their  nature  and  accommodate  themselves  to  unavoidable 
circumstances.  Chickens,  geese,  and  turkeys,  live  entirely  upon 
meat,  and  hogs  are  fattened  upon  it.  Can  it  be  wondered  at, 
that  the  inhabitants  of  this  country,  continually  butchering,  and 
for  ever  surrounded  by  death  and  blood,  become  themselves  wild 
and  blood-thirsty,  and  learn  to  think,  only  too  often,  no  more  of 
a  human  life  than  that  of  a  calf  or  a  horse. 

An  immense  quantity  of  wild  water-fowl  enlivens  the  small 
creeks  and  ponds  and  lakes  on  the  wide  plains.  Wild  ducks 
and  geese,  swans,  cranes  and  flamingos,  fly  about  in  swarms,  or 
float  on  the  shallow  and  unwholesome  waters. 

We  only  went  out  once  with  our  guns,  and  then,  although  in 
fact,  it  was  more  to  see  the  game  than  for  sport,  I  found  my 
most  extravagant  expectations  surpassed.  In  about  half  a  day, 
which  we  spent  on  the  margin  of  a  little  river,  and  a  pond — I 
can  not  call  it  a  lake — we  saw  several  flocks  of  geese  and  swans, 
at  least  twenty  different  species  of  ducks  and  many  diving-birds, 
two  kinds  of  flamingos,  one  of  a  soft  rose  colour,  which  looked 
most  beautiful  in  rising,  and  the  other  of  a  darker  red  and  black, 
but  both  of  them  very  shy.  Innumerable  plovers  were  scattered 
about  everywhere,  and  as  nobody  kills  them,  showed  themselves 
so  tame  and  impudent,  that  they  kept  flying  and  screaming 
around  us,  wherever  we  went,  and  very  frequently  frightened 
the  game  away.  Water,  or  swamp-snipes,  a  kind  of  wood-cock, 
appeared  in  flocks  of  eighty  and  ninety,  as  did  also  a  large  strand- 
snipe,  a  kind  of  water-turkey,  as  large  as  a  common  turkey,  but 
not  eatable.  Besides  these,  there  was  a  bird  not  unlike  a  grouse, 
and  a  quantity  of  cranes,  storks,  and  gulls. 

When  we  went  home  in  the  evening,  the  air  was  perfectly 
alive  with  ducks  and  geese,  flying  in  regular  triangles  to  their 
nightly  resting-places.  I  noticed  a  small  quadruped,  about  the 


42  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

size  of  a  large  cat,  but  more  heavy  and  clumsy,  and  belonging 
to  the  badger  family,  sitting  before  tolerably  large  and  deep 
holes,  and  watching  our  movements.  If  we  passed  quietly  by, 
they  would  remain  stationary,  but  on  the  least  motion  toward 
them,  they  disappeared  like  lightning  in  their  holes. 

We  shot  one,  just  to  have  a  fair  look  at  the  creature,  and 
found  it  a  little  animal  between  the  badger  and  the  hamster, 
something  larger  than  the  American  ground-hog.  The  skin  of 
this  little  animal,  I  was  told,  is  tolerably  good,  and  even  the 
meat  is  eatable,  but  nobody  molests  them.  The  gauehos  have 
meat  enough  in  their  cattle,  and  they  do  not  require,  in  this  warm 
climate,  the  fur,  and  as  the  skins  are  not  yet  marketable,  they 
have  no  inducement  to  kill  these  innocent  creatures. 

A  peculiar  kind  of  otter  is  found  in  great  numbers  in  the  water- 
courses, but  Rosas  prohibited  their  being  hunted,  as  the  skins, 
which  are  of  some  value,  were  reserved  as  a  prize  for  his  soldiers. 
The  avestrus,  or  South  American  ostrich,  is  similarly  reserved, 
and  slaughter  is  punishable  with  a  heavy  penalty. 

I  was  very  careful  to  learn  as  much  as  I  could  of  the  charac- 
ter of  the  laws,  and  found  here  an  admirable  opportunity,  the 
orerseer  of  this  plantation  being  a  very  intelligent  German,  who 
could  give  me  every  information  I  wanted. 

What  he  said  at  first  of  Rosas,  sounded  much  better  than  I 
had  expected,  and  I  found  it  confirmed  afterward  wherever  I 
went.  That  Rosas  was  a  tyrant,  nobody  could  well  deny.  He 
ruled  the  land  with  an  iron  hand :  when  he  overthrew  his  ene- 
mies, and  gained  the  ascendency,  blood  had  run  in  perfect 
streams  ;  but  it  wanted  such  a  man  as  Rosas  to  keep  this  unruly 
population,  always  ready  to  use  the  deadly  knife,  in  peace  and 
order.  At  the  same  time  he  protected  foreigners  and  foreign 
handicrafts,  for  he  felt  that  it  needed  their  example,  with  his 
only  half-civilized  hordes,  to  make  the  people  till  the  ground, 
and  become  after  a  while  peaceful  citizens. 

The  form  of  government  has  since  been  altered.  Rosas  has 
become  a  fugitive  in  Europe,  and  another  president  rules  the 
Plata  States.  The  new  government  has  one  great  advantage, 
in  not  having  commenced  with  a  deluge  of  blood,  or  such  atro- 
cities as  Rosas  perpetrated,  to  satiate  his  vengeance  and  cow 
down  his  enemies.  I  hope  it  may  be  also  able  to  keep  in  force 
his  beneficial  laws,  which  protect  the  lives  and  property  of  citi- 


BUENOS  AYRES  AND  THE  SURROUNDING  COUNTRY.  43 

zens  and  foreigners,  and  in  that  case,  the  Argentine  republic  bids 
fair  to  become  one  of  the  most  flourishing  countries  in  South 
America. 

The  climate  is  salubrious.  Sickness,  it  is  true,  appears  here 
and  there,  but  it  is  never  malignant,  and  the  soil  is — unlike  the 
prairies  of  North  America,  where  the  best  land  is  never  found — 
most  excellent,  producing  even  with  very  little  culture  first  rate 
crops. 

The  export  produce  consists  as  yet  only  of  hides,  dried  beef, 
tallow,  wool,  &c.  Cattle  and  sheep,  indeed,  furnish  the  only 
produce  for  market,  but  what  a  quantity  of  this  the  Pampas  raise, 
the  reader  may  imagine,  from  the  Buenos  Ayres  prices,  namely, 
a  fattened  bullock  of  two  years  and  a  half,  ten  shillings ;  one 
three  years  old,  eleven  shillings ;  a  cow,  from  ten  to  twelve  shil- 
lings ;  a  tame  milch-cow,  with  calf,  up  to  twenty  shillings. 

This  is  the  price  by  the  single  head,  but  buying  a  herd  together, 
as  a  new  settler  always  does,  cattle  cost,  on  an  average,  from 
three  to  four  shillings  a  head.  Buyer  and  seller  ride  out,  and 
drive  up  a  certain  number  of  cattle.  In  counting  at  the  above- 
named  price  of  from  three  to  four  shillings  a  head,  calves  are 
always  given  in. 

A  good  broken- in  horse  commonly  costs  twenty  or  twenty-two 
shillings  ;  an  unbroken  gelding,  half  that  sum.  Of  stallions,  you 
may  buy  as  many  as  you  wish,  at  four  shillings  a  head,  and 
mares  are  even  cheaper,  but  mares  are  never  ridden. 

The  most  serious  expense  are  the  sheep.  What  are  called  the 
fine  merino-sheep  fetch  as  much  as  six  dollars,  or  twenty-four 
shillings  a  head,  but  sheep-farmers  here  consider  this  an  exorbi- 
tant charge,  and  the  average  price  for  good  common  sheep  is 
only  one  shilling  and  sixpence  ;  and  if  you  buy  the  quite  common 
kind,  and  in  a  lot,  you  pay  from  one  and  a  half  to  two  pesos — a 
pesos  is  not  quite  three-pence — the  head.  A  dozen  sheep-skins 
can  be  bought  for  six  or  eight  shillings,  the  skins  being  dearer 
than  the  whole  sheep.  Hogs  are  the  dearest  animals  in  the  coun- 
try, and  a  good  hog  brings  from  one  to  two  pounds. 

The  price  of  land  has  risen  during  the  last  ten  years,  but  it  is 
yet  so  cheap  as  not  to  require  a  very  large  capital  in  the  settler. 
Land  is  measured  by  varas — a  vara  being  something  less  than  a 
yard — and  government  sells  it  in  sections  of  one  legua  and  a  half, 
(a  legua  being  six  thousand  varas),  and  each  vara  costs  from  four 


44  JOURNEY  BOUND  THE  WORLD. 

to  seven  shillings.     But  the  closer  the  land  is  to  a  town  or  city, 
the  greater,  of  course,  is  its  value. 

Wheat,  though  I  saw  little  of  it  raised  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Buenos  Ayres,  is  cheap,  as  are  all  kinds  of  vegetables.  They 
had  j  ust  gathered,  in  June,  the  second  harvest  of  potatoes  ;  and 
there  is  no  doubt,  a  poor  man  can  commence  here  with  a  very 
small  capital,  and  be  pretty  certain  to  secure,  by  moderate  indus- 
try, a  good  subsistence. 

On  the  Monday  morning  we  returned  to  town,  but  I  must  not 
omit  to  mention  a  singular  tree — or  rather  the  singular  tree  they 
have  here,  for  I  saw  no  other — except  some  little  stunted  acacias. 
It  is  called  the  ombu,  and  is  indeed  a  splendid  tree  for  shade,  and 
in  form  is  the  most  fantastic  I  have  ever  seen.  This  tree,  when 
young,  has  a  trunk  like  other  trees,  running  straight  up  from  the 
ground  to  a  height  of  eight  or  ten  feet,  but  when  old  it  becomes 
withered,  and  loses  both  root  and  branches.  This  is,  after  all,  a 
very  wise  arrangement,  for  the  wide-spreading  branches  of  the 
wet  and  spongy  wood,  could  never  be  able  to  support  themselves, 
and  indeed  require  to  be  sustained  by  props  from  the  roots,  which 
spring  up  to  meet  them,  but,  unlike  the  banana  of  India,  do  not 
again  fall  to  the  ground,  but  twine  themselves  round  the  stem, 
and  form  caves  and  columns,  reaching  out  from  the  tree  on  every 
side.  The  wood  is  entirely  useless,  and  will  not  even  burn,  un- 
less it  has  been  previously  well-dried  by  the  sun,  but  the  leaves 
are  a  beautiful  green,  and  the  tree  presents  a  fine  appearance. 

I  had  a  very  interesting  interview,  or  rather  audience,  at  the 
governor's  house,  with  Donna  Manuelita,  the  lovely  daughter  of 
the  famous  gaucho  chief. 

It  was  desirable  to  hear,  from  the  governor  himself,  how  far 
he  would  interest  himself  in  German  immigration,  and  if  he 
would  really  be  willing  to  grant  any  advantages  to  poor,  but  in- 
dustrious German  farmers,  who  landed  in  his  territories,  or  only 
leave  them  to  themselves ;  but  Rosas  never  received  strangers, 
not  even  the  consuls  of  the  different  states,  the  American  consul 
being  the  only  exception.  Whatever  they  wished  to  say  must 
be  brought  before  his  daughter — the  prime  minister  of  state — and 
to  her  I  also  had  been  referred.  But  here  another  difficulty  arose. 
On  leaving  my  ship,  knowing  what  kind  of  road  I  had  to  traverse, 
I  had  not  encumbered  myself  with  any  superfluous  wardrobe, 
and  a  gray  woollen  hunting-shirt,  with  my  water-boots  and  broad- 


BUENOS  AYRES  AND  THE  SURROUNDING  COUNTRY.  45 

brimmed  hat,  was  the  gayest  attire  I  could  assume  for  the  pres- 
ence-chamber. Mr.  Graham,  with  whom  I  conferred  on  this 
subject,  only  laughed,  and  told  me  that  would  not  make  the  least 
difference.  Donna  Manuelita,  was  too  sensible  and  discreet  a  lady 
to  care  much  about  my  appearance,  and  he  would  undertake  to 
introduce  me  to  her  himself. 

One  evening,  therefore,  to  the  astonishment  of  the  sentinel  at 
the  governor's  palace,  he  presented  me  to  Donna  Manuelita,  who 
was  attended  by  some  grandees  of  the  Argentine  court,  and  some 
lovely  young  ladies,  one  of  whom  spoke  English  very  fluently, 
and  another  even  a  little  German.  In  spite  of  my  dress,  which 
was  more  suitable  to  the  Pampas  than  to  a  court,  I  passed  a  very 
pleasant  hour. 

The  interior  of  the  governor's  house — so  far  as  I  could  observe 
it — was  simple,  but  very  tastefully  furnished  in  the  European 
style,  though  the  lofty  and  spacious  rooms  were  suited  to  the 
warmer  climate. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    SALADEROS. 

I  HEARD  so  much  during  my  residence  in  Buenos  Ayres,  of  the 
saladeros,  or  butchering  places  of  this  city,  that  I  very  naturally 
wished  to  see  them  ;  and  one  of  my  countrymen,  a  young  mer- 
chant, undertook  to  be  my  cicerone.  One  fine  morning,  before 
breakfast — I  wish  we  had  waited  till  after — we  took  horse  and 
galloped  to  a  boca,  or  little  creek,  about  three  miles  distant, 
where  these  saladeros  lay. 

Having  followed  nearly  all  the  way  the  windings  of  the  Plata 
river,  I  had  contracted  a  faint  presentiment  of  what  we  should 
behold,  from  a  perfect  mass  of  dead  cattle  and  horses,  which  had 
been  washed  ashore  by  the  stream,  and  lay  undisturbed  in  the 
middle  of  the  road,  to  be  consumed  by  birds  of  prey,  or  by  time. 
At  one  point  in  particular,  where  the  high  shore  jutted  out  very 
steeply,  and  only  a  small  road,  or  path,  had  been  left,  lay  three 
horses  together,  over  which  we  had  to  pass.  The  stench  was 
stifling,  but  our  horses  did  not  mind  it  a  bit,  and  jumped  over 
their  fallen  comrades  without  the  least  hesitation. 

After  a  ride  of  about  fifteen  minutes,  we  arrived  in  sight  of 
the  boca.  I  thought  at  first  the  banks  of  the  little  watercourse 
looked  remarkably  chalky,  but  as  we  neared  the  place  I  was 
astonished  to  see  that  the  whole  bank  consisted  of  nothing  else 
but  cattle-skulls,  which  were  walled  up,  with  the  horns  sticking 
regularly  out  like  spikes.  But  we  had  no  time  to  linger  on  these 
relics  of  mortality ;  our  road  lay  over  the  little  bridge — a  toll- 
bridge  by-the-by — and  a  few  minutes  afterward  we  found  our- 
selves between  the  low  buildings  and  sheds  of  the  saladeros. 

At  the  shed  we  first  visited,  they  did  not,  as  they  said>  kill 
that  day,  but  were  busy  salting  down  the  hides,  to  get  them 
ready  for  shipment.  The  place  was  cleared  up,  and  looked  pass- 
ably clean  ;  but  galloping  only  a  few  hundred  yards  further,  we 
heard  the  screams  and  yells  of  the  drivers,  and  as  we  neared  tho 


THE  SALADEROS.  47 

place  saw  three  horsemen  ride  into  a  wide  corral  or  inclosure, 
where  a  couple  of  hundred  head  of  cattle  were  collected,  and 
who  tried  to  separate  a  part  of  them  from  the  rest. 

One  of  the  'horsemen  was  a  most  eonspicuous  figure — an  old 
tall  bony  fellow,  some  fifty-six  or  sixty  years  old,  with  long  iron- 
gray  locks,  tough  and  sunburnt,  and  with  a  physiognomy  as  plain 
and  readable  as  heart  could  wish.  If  ever  there  existed  a  bloody 
murderous  villain  in  these  States,  where  people  grow  up  in  blood 
and  murder,  this  was  the  man.  Such  have  been  the  butchers 
sent  by  Rosas,  with  his  orders  of  death  into  the  very  houses  of 
his  enemies,  to  cut  their  throats  wherever  they  found  them,  even 
should  it  be  at  table,  with  wives  and  children  around  them. 
This  man  seemed  to  be  the  leader  of  the  rest,  and  was  undoubt- 
edly a  dexterous  hand  at  this  bloody  trade. 

A  red  poncho,  with  dark  blue  stripes,  hung  round  his  shoulders, 
and  he  wore  a  cheripaw  of  the  same  color,  with  a  red  kerchief 
round  his  head,  and  botas  taken  from  the  feet  of  a  horse,  which 
looked  almost  as  red  as  his  other  garments,  showing  how  busy 
he  had  been  that  morning  at  his  handicraft.  The  lasso  was  fast- 
ened on  the  back  of  his  saddle — for  what  would  a  gaucho  be  with- 
out a  lasso  ?  and  in  galloping  along,  the  out-flying  poncho  some- 
times afforded  a  glimpse  of  a  long  ivory-handled  and  blood-stain- 
ed knife,  stuck  in  a  belt  behind  his  back,  the  handle  toward  his 
right  hand.  A  shaggy  gray  beard  waved  about  his  chin,  while 
he  was  continually  chewing  one  of  his  long  mustaches,  and,  simi- 
lar bunches  of  gray  hair  hung  down  over  his  eyes,  now  glaring 
with  a  wild  and  burning  fire.  I  could  not  remove  my  eye  from 
this  old  gray  gaucho,  and  his  every  movement  only  riveted  it 
more. 

Three  of  the  corrals  were  close  together — one  very  large  one, 
into  which  the  cattle  were  driven  as  soon  as  they  came  in ;  the 
second,  about  half  as  large,  designed  to  hold  a  part  of  them,  so 
that  the  drivers  need  not  always  run  among  the  crowd,  and 
frighten  the  animals  more  than  necessary ;  and  the  third  and 
smallest,  which  would  hold  only  forty  or  fifty  head,  forming  the 
killing  place.  In  the  second  were  about  thirty  head  standing 
apart  from  the  first  lot,  and  then  three  horsemen  galloped  in 
among  these,  and  drove  them  with  deafening  cries  into  the  small- 
est corral.  At  first  the  poor  animals  ran  forward,  seeing  a  place 
open  for  them,  which  might  lead  to  liberty  ;  but  as  soon  as  they 


48  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

scented  the  fresh  blood,  they  pressed  back,  though  too  late,  their 
executioners  being  already  upon  them,  pushing  some  forward  by 
the  weight  of  their  horses,  and  frightening  others  by  swinging 
their  arms  round,  as  if  they  were  about  to  throw  the  dreaded 
lasso.  Bewildered  and  half-deafened  by  the  unearthly  screams 
of  their  pursuers,  alarmed  by  the  scent  of  blood  and  the  mass  of 
strange  faces  and  shapes  around  the  corral,  they  advanced  slow- 
ly, step  by  step,  till  only  a  few  paces  from  the  bars,  which  were 
to  close  upon  them,  when  some  of  the  poor  creatures  stood  hesitat- 
ing and  trembling,  as  if  insensible  of  the  yells  and  blows  which 
urged  them  onward. 

This  incensed  the  terrible  old  gaucho,  who  turned  his  revenca, 
and  struck  the  heavy  iron  ring  down  on  the  hip-bones  of  the  poor 
bellowing  beasts,  then  dropping  his  revenca,  which  swung  on  a 
thin  cord  to  his  wrist,  and  plucking  his  knife  from  its  scabbard, 
ran  it,  not  to  injure  the  hide,  with  a  dreadful  curse,  between  the 
hams  of  one  unhappy  animal.  The  rascal  would  have  run  his 
knife,  I  believe  with  the  same  delight  into  a  human  heart.  But 
this  cruel  act  accomplished,  the  last  of  the  herd  entered  the  cor- 
ral ;  the  bars  closed  behind  them,  and  two  minutes  afterward  the 
slaughter  begun. 

The  old  gaucho  left  the  corral  with  his  two  followers,  and  all 
of  them  stationed  themselves  outside,  where  they  fastened  a  very 
strong  raw-hide  rope  to  the  saddle  girts,  of  their  horses,  and  then 
waited  the  signal  for  further  proceedings. 

.  The  leathern  rope  was  a  long  and  very  strong  lasso,  turned 
with  a  running  noose  over  a  block,  which  a  man  held  in  his 
hand.  He  was  standing  on  a  kind  of  scaffold,  right  above  the 
fence,  and  opposite  to  where  the  cattle  had  entered  the  corral. 
As  soon  as  he  received  the  word,  the  man  with  the  lasso  swung 
it  twice  or  three  times  round  his  head,  and  threw  the  noose  with 
unerring  precision  round  the  horns  of  one  of  the  animals.  The 
three  horsemen  saw  the  noose  flying,  and  perfectly  satisfied  that 
it  had  taken  effect,  they  spurred  forward,  and  dragged  the  en- 
snared heifer  down  on  her  knees  and  over  her  side  ;  and  so  before 
she  could  gain  her  feet,  or  offer,  in  fact,  the  least  resistance,  brought 
her  to  the  place  where  the  lasso-thrower  stood,  when  the  latter, 
bending  down,  passed  his  long  glittering  knife  with  indescribable 
dexterity  through  her  neck,  close  behind  the  horns.  Then,  with- 
out turning  a  look  on  his  victim,  he  took  the  noose  from  the  horns, 


THE  SALADEROS.  49 

while  the  horsemen  came  galloping  back  to  slack  the  lasso  ;  and 
raising  himself  up  to  his  old  posture,  opened  a  kind  of  tray  in  the 
corral,  and  the  whole  frame  on  which  the  heifer  had  been  pulled 
down,  glided  away  out  with  the  bleeding  animal  upon  it.  It 
was  then  slid  down  a  short  railroad  to  an  open  shed,  where  half- 
a-dozen  bloody  hands,  with  naked  arms  and  legs,  and  long  knives, 
were  waiting  to  strip  off  the  hide,  and  cut  up  the  different  parts 
of  the  body. 

A  strong  push  drove  the  frame  back  to  its  old  place,  and  the 
next  moment  the  noose  was  thrown  over  another  pair  of  horns, 
and  the  same  performance  was  begun  anew.  Backward  and  for- 
ward ran  the  little  frame,  the  lasso  whirled,  and  the  poor  animals 
bellowed  more  and  more  dismally,  betraying  at  each  execution  the 
greatest  agitation  and  dread.  With  every  sign  of  terror  in  their 
eyes,  and  bristling  hair,  they  tried  to  escape  the  inevitable  noose, 
but  in  vain — another  and  another  fell,  and  once  even  two  were 
caught  together,  without  making  the  least  alteration  in  the 
arrangements  for  slaughter ;  and  half  an  hour  afterward  the 
three  horsemen  trotted  back  to  the  largest  corral,  to  drive  in 
another  lot. 

We  now  proceeded  to  view  the  slaughter-house  itself;  but  I 
could  not  linger  here,  and  turned  away  sickened.  The  place 
was  certainly  kept  as  clean  as  possible,  but  it  could  not  prevent 
my  heart  arid  soul  recoiling  from  such  a  scene.  The  blood  ran 
in  perfect  streams  through  wooden  and  open  gutters  toward  the 
boca,  and  several  men  were  stationed  to  keep  these  channels  free 
from  clots.  The  shed  was  high  and  roomy;  and  the  railroad 
on  which  the  slain  animals  were  brought  down,  passed  through 
it  from  one  end  to  the  other.  Men  were  busy  cutting  open  an 
heifer,  while  others  stripped  the  hide  from  the  reeking  carcase, 
and  the  body  itself  disappeared  under  their  sharp  knives  and 
dexterous  hands.  And  what  a  spectacle  were  these  men !  with 
their  naked  feet  wading  in  blood,  and  their  whole  persons  covered 
with  it ;  while  every  where  around  were  strewn  the  heads,  and 
feet,  and  tongues  of  the  slaughtered  animals,  In  another  corner 
men  were  loading  wagons  with  intestines ;  and  here  I  saw  a 
whole  pile,  thirty  or  forty  pieces,  of  unborn  calves ;  and  boys, 
working  up  to  their  shoulders  in  blood,  were  engaged  skinning 
the  largest,  and  dragging  the  rest  by  the  hind  legs  to  some  carts 
which  stood  waiting  to  receive  them. 

C 


50  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

One  fellow  in  a  short  red  poncho — I  shall  never  forget  him  as 
long  as  I  live — kept  crawling  round  this  sickening  heap,  till  he 
seized  one  palpitating  mass  by  the  hind  leg,  pulled  from  under 
his  poncho  an  old  blood-stained  bag,  dropped  his  prize  into  it, 
and  gliding  off  without  any  body  observing  his  proceedings,  dis- 
appeared from  the  shed.  From  this  charnel  heap  he  had  picked 
out  his  breakfast !  My  blood  curdled  at  the  thought.  I  could 
endure  such  scenes  no  longer,  and  I  hastened  away.  Our  horses 
were  only  a  few  yards  distant,  but  they  stood  as  quiet  as  if  they 
had  been  grazing  on  the  open  plain — they  were  used  to  it. 

In  a  few  minutes  we  were  at  full  speed  on  our  way  home,  and 
reached  town  in  time  for  breakfast ;  but  it  was  three  days  before 
I  could  again  touch  a  piece  of  meat — I  could  not  bear  to  look 
at  it. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

TO    HORSE. 

THE  few  days  I  was  yet  to  remain  at  Buenos  Ayres,  I  spent  in 
walking  about  the  town,  seeing  and  hearing  as  much  as  possible. 
In  the  afternoon  I  usually  rode  out,  partly  to  have  a  better 
opportunity  of  seeing  the  neighborhood,  partly  to  accustom  my- 
self to  the  saddle ;  for  though  I  could  sit  a  horse  very  well,  I 
was  not  quite  sure  how  I  could  stand  a  ride,  nearly  all  the  way 
at  full  speed,  of  three  hundred  and  nineteen  leagues,  at  one 
stretch. 

Horses  are  very  cheap  at  Buenos  Ayres,  and  one  can  very  well 
hire  a  horse  for  a  dollar  a  day  ;  but  the  report  spread  by  captains 
of  merchantmen,  that  horses  are  so  cheap  here,  that  they  are  per- 
fectly satisfied  at  a  livery-stable  if  you  only  bring  back  the  sad- 
dle, and  will  not  ask  a  higher  price  for  the  horse  than  the  com- 
mon hire  of  it,  is,  I  need  hardly  say,  a  fable.  Sea-captains  are, 
in  fact,  the  only  persons  who  can  ever  play  this  trick,  as  the  pro- 
prietors of  livery-stables  at  Buenos  Ayres — nearly  all  of  whom 
are  Englishmen — know  seamen  as  far  as  they  can  see  them,  and 
are  aware  how  they  treat  horses,  whenever  they  get  "  on  board" 
of  one  ;  therefore  they  take  very  good  care  to  let  them  have  such 
animals  only  as  they  can  not  spoil — the  oldest  and  worst  in  the 
stable — and  consequently  it  is  always  an  accident  if  they  do  come 
back.  For  such  animals  even  a  dealer  in  horseflesh  has  not  the 
heart  to  ask  a  price,  and  they  let  off  the  delinquents,  as  the  cap- 
tains aver,  if  they  only  bring  back  the  saddle ;  while  the  poor 
devil  of  a  rider,  who  had  hoped  to  enjoy  an  afternoon's  quiet  ride, 
thinks  himself  very  well  off,  only  to  have  been  obliged  to  carry 
home  his  saddle  for  a  distance  of  five  or  six  miles  on  his  own 
back,  instead  of  the  horse's. 

On  the  17th  of  June,  two  boys  came  to  me  from  the  old  cor- 
reo,  leading  a  horse,  to  take  me  to  his  house,  whence  he  intended 
to  make  an  early  start. 


52  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

At  home,  Mr.  Davies,  my  landlord — or  rather  my  landlady's 
husband,  for  he  was  in  the  wool  trade,  and  hardly  ever  at  home 
— had  in  the  mean  time  taken  the  greatest  pains  to  persuade  me 
not  to  risk  the  trip,  at  least  not  to  do  it  for  the  sake  of  settling  in 
California  ;  and  I  could  never  convince  him  that  I  was  not  trav- 
eling to,  but  through  California.  "  Stay  away  from  the  accursed 
country,"  he  used  to  say ;  "I  have  got  a  particular  friend  there, 
hem," — he  put  in  the  hem  sometimes  in  the  drollest  way  im- 
aginable— "  and  he  knows  all  about  it,  hem."  He  then  told  me 
some  very  dreadful  tales  about  the  mines,  the  fevers  there,  the 
murders  and  robberies,  and  a  hundred  other  pleasant  incidents, 
which  might  encourage  a  traveler,  and  finished  this  glowing  ac- 
count of  the  gold  country  nearly  always  with  the  words  :  "  And 
to  get  to  this  wretched  country  as  quick  as  possible,  hem  !  you 
want  to  have  your  throat  cut  first  from  ear  to  ear,  hem  ?  and 
then  be  stuck  up  in  the  snow,  and  let  the  temporales  have  a 
blow  at  you,  hem?" 

Poor  Mr.  Davies,  all  his  reasonings  were  in  vain ;  and  as  I 
shook  hands  with  him  at  parting,  he  hoped  to  see  an  account  in 
the  papers  that  the  Pampas  Indians  had  not  eaten  me,  at  least 
without  pepper  and  salt. 

Reaching  the  house  of  the  old  correo,  I  was  rather  astonished 
to  see  the  old  fellow,  whom  I  had  expected  to  find  packing  and 
saddling  his  horses,  sitting  very  quietly  and  unconcerned  in  a 
chair,  sucking  his  mate  ;  while  the  whole  room  was  strewn  over 
with  packets,  packs,  and  blankets.  His  old  lady  was  squatting 
in  a  corner,  blowing  a  rather  sickly  coal -fire,  to  keep  the  water 
boiling  for  that  eternal  beverage ;  and  his  son  leant  back  on  a  mat- 
tress, which  seemed  to  serve  at  once  as  a  sofa  and  bed,  and  played 
some  Spanish  dances,  with  a  really  skillful  hand,  on  the  guitar. 

As  I  entered  the  room,  the  lady  rose  and  offered  me  a  small 
gourd,  with  a  thin  metal  tube  sticking  in  it,  and  containing  fluid 
boiling  hot.  I  knew  from  the  description  given  to  me  by  some 
friends,  that  this  was  the  famous  mate,  and  put  the  tube,  with- 
out grumbling,  between  my  lips  ;  but  bless  my  soul,  how  quickly 
I  drew  it  out  again  !  I  believe  it  was  red-hot,  and  the  skin  of 
my  lips  stuck  to  the  pipe  ;  but  the  lady  smiled,  and  the  old  cor- 
reo laughed  outright,  for  they  thought  me  a  great  greenhorn. 
Not  able  to  drink  their  mate  !  how  then  could  I  stand  a  ride 
through  the  Pampas  ? 


TO  HORSE.  53 

Seeing  the  bad  impression  I  had  made,  I  put  the  tube  once 
more  into  my  mouth,  like  a  good  bojymnd  at  it  I  went.  The 
tears  rose  in  my  eyes,  and  I  considered  myself  a  martyr  in  a 
small  way,  but  I  did  not  dare  to  wink  any  more. 

The  mate  is  the  most  favorite  drink  in  the  Argentine  republic, 
and  perhaps  the  reader  may  be  well  satisfied  to  hear  a  few  words 
about  it,  if  he  has  not  to  drink  it.  Mate  itself  is  principally 
raised  in  the  Brazils  and  Paraguay,  and  is  gathered  from  a  tree. 
It  looks  like  a  very  fine  green  powder,  with  little  pieces  of  stalk 
in  it.  This  stuff  is  put  in  a  small  gourd  about  as  large  as  an 
apple,  which  is  filled  up  with  boiling  water.  But  since  the  fine 
dust-like  powder,  made  into  tea,  would  be  too  disagreeable  to 
drink,  a  tube  or  bombilla,  as  it  is  called,  with  a  little  hollow  and 
pierced  ball  at  one  end,  is  introduced  into  the  gourd,  and  the  ball 
sinking  into  the  mate,  holds  back  the  powder,  and  only  the  liquid 
is  sucked  through.  But  the  difficulty  with  a  stranger  lies  in  the 
metal,  which  immediately  imbibes  the  heat  of  the  water,  and 
burns  the  lips  of  those  who  are  not  used  to  scorching.  The 
natives  draw  away  at  this  tube  continually  ;  but  at  first  it  is  to 
a  stranger  not  only  painful,  but  even  a  disgusting  act,  for  neither 
gourd  nor  bombilla  are  ever  changed,  and  go  from  mouth  to 
mouth  through  the  whole  company.  Nor  can  you  venture  to 
decline  the  compliment — for  such  it  is  deemed — or  you  would 
offend  the  whole  company,  and  particularly  the  host  and  hostess. 
I  knew  my  fate  from  the  first,  and  sat  there  sucking  the  sweet 
burning  stuff,  with  a  resignation  worthy  of  a  better  cause. 

While  we  were  drinking,  a  couple  of  young  fellows  came  in, 
and  began  to  carry  out  the  packs  that  strewed  the  floor.  The 
correo  followed  soon  after,  leaving  me  alone  with  the  old  lady 
and  the  guitar  player.  The  old  lady  immediately  made  an 
attack  on  the  little  Spanish  I  knew,  arid  wanted  to  learn  all 
about  my  family  and  home,  circumstances,  and  interests.  But  I 
was  very  reserved,  and  at  last  she  had  to  give  up  the  inquest  in 
despair,  though  not  till  her  husband  came  suddenly  back  into  the 
room,  and  buckling  on  his  large  spurs,  and  picking  up  a  short- 
handled,  long  and  strong  whip,  called  to  horse.  In  a  few  min- 
utes he  was  ready,  and  took  a  short  but  kind  leave  of  his  wife, 
while  the  young  fellow  laid  down  his  guitar  to  shake  hands  with 
him,  and  we  sallied  forth. 

The  horses  were  outside — four  fine,  strong,  lively  animals — 


54  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

one  loaded  with  all  the  packs  and  packets  I  had  seen  in  the  room, 
another  with  a  large  putmanteau,  and  the  remaining  two  des- 
tined to  carry  ourselves.  My  saddle-bags  were  quickly  fastened, 
my  blanket  and  poncho  tied  behind,  and  the  next  minute  found 
us  trotting  slowly  through  the  crowded  streets — for  people  are  not 
allowed  to  gallop  in  town — till  we  reached  the  outskirts,  when, 
clapping  spurs  to  his  horse,  the  old  fellow  gave  the  whip  to  the 
pack-horse,  which  a  young  gaucho — our  postillion,  who  rode  him- 
self the  horse  with  the  portmanteau — held  by  a  line,  nodded  to 
me,  and  away  we  went  at  a  speed  which  I  thought  would  in- 
evitably knock  up  the  pack-horse  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour.  But 
little  did  I  know  of  South  American  horses. 

My  old  correo  was  a  fine  specimen  of  a  gaucho,  though  dressed 
more  in  the  European  style.  He  wore  a  black  broad-brimmed 
hat,  like  my  own,  but  of  a  coarser  and  more  durable  stuff,  a  large 
dark-blue  poncho,  lined  with  red,  and  instead  o^being  simply  slit 
open  in  the  middle,  it  was  furnished  with  a  cloak-like  cape  and 
button.  His  other  garments  consisted  of  a  tight  pair  of  unmen- 
tionables, and  long  tan-colored  riding-boots,  to  which  were  buckled 
the  heavy  iron  spurs.  Round  his  neck  he  wore  a  red  kerchief, 
and  he  grasped  in  his  hand  the  longed  whip  already  mentioned, 
provided,  as  it  seemed,  exclusively  for  the  benefit  of  the  pack- 
horse. 

The  spurs  of  the  gauchos  hang  down  under  their  heels,  so  that 
they  can  hardly  walk  with  them,  and  have  to  step  always  on 
tiptoe.  On  foot,  indeed,  these  gauchos  are  very  inferior  beings, 
reminding  one  of  a  seal  ashore  ;  and  the  spurs  with  their  hold- 
ing-wheels, three  and  four  inches  in  diameter,  rattle  and  jingle 
behind  them  incessantly ;  but  let  them  touch  the  back  of  their 
horses,  and  they  are  changed  as  by  a  magic  rod.  At  first  stoop- 
ing over  and  walking  as  if  between  eggs,  the  gaucho  suddenly 
draws  himself  up,  the  downcast  look  becomes  confident,  even 
haughty,  and  once  in  the  saddle,  on  the  back  of  his  prancing 
steed,  horse  and  rider  seem  one  being,  made  of  fire  and  life. 
After  a  short  time  among  them,  I  found  also  the  advantage  of 
draggling  the  spurs.  The  gaucho,  of  course,  never  thinks  of 
cleaning  or  currying  his  horse,  and  consequently  the  animal,  par- 
ticularly in  wet  weather,  is  perfectly  incrusted  with  mud,  which 
a  common  European  spur  would  never  pierce.  The  spurs  there- 
fore must  have  long  and  sharp  points,  and  as  these,  if  stuck  out 


TO  HORSE.  55 

straight  behind,  could  not  but  be  very  inconvenient  and  even 
dangerous  to  the  rider,  when  riding  a  wild  and  unbroken  horse, 
they  are  fastened  in  such  a  way  that  he  may  press  his  heels  as 
closely  as  he  pleases  to  the  belly  of  the  rearing  animal,  without 
using  the  spur,  which,  however,  a  slight  turn  of  the  foot  will 
bring  into  immediate  operation. 

My  attention  was  soon  called  to  the  surrounding  country,  and 
to  the  wild  figures  we  met  on  the  road,  and  who  galloped  madly 
past,  their  ponchos  and  kerchiefs  streaming  behind.  The  correo 
knew  them  all,  having  for  more  than  forty  years  traversed  the 
same  route,  and,  as  we  proceeded,  there  was  not  a  hut  from 
which  he  had  not  a  friendly  word.  Being  in  the  great  thorough- 
fare to  the  city,  the  main  entrance  from  the  interior,  we  passed 
numbers  of  mules  and  wagons,  bringing  produce  to  town,  And 
the  landscape  itself,  with  the  singular  aloe  and  cactus  hedges, 
the  low  houses,  the  garden  walls  of  sheep's-heads,  the  heavy 
carts  drawn  by  lazy  oxen,  and  with  a  lazier  driver  sitting  on  the 
shaft,  pricking  the  patient  animals  with  a  short-pointed  stick ; 
the  expansive  plain,  with  its  widely-ranging  swellings  of  low  un- 
dulating land,  and  numerous  herds,  scattered  over  the  green  turf, 
formed  altogether  a  scene  of  extraordinary  interest. 

But  the  correo  had  no  eye  for  the  scenery,  and  my  sprightly 
horse  required  no  little  attention ;  so  away  we  galloped,  our 
horses  a  little  scared  sometimes  by  the  buzzard  and  half-wild 
dogs,  feasting  on  some  mouldering  carcase  of  horse  or  heifer, 
which  we  scented  at  a  distance  on  the  poisoned  air,  and  from 
which  they  were  startled  by  our  approach.  Then  the  road  be- 
comes more  open ;  the  sharp  whip  descends  with  a  smack  on  the 
hips  of  the  poor  pack-horse,  the  postillion  strikes  with  his  revenca, 
and  away  we  go  at  full  speed  over  the  plain. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

A    RIDE    ACROSS    THE    PAMPAS. 

OUR  first  station  was  Al  Puente  de  Marquez,  a  high-sounding 
name,  appropriated  by  a  miserable  hut,  at  which  we  changed 
horses,  and  took  some  dinner — a  dish  of  meat  and  another  of 
pumpkin,  mate  being  of  course  the  vanguard  of  the  whole.  I 
knew  immediately  that  my  blistered  lips  would  not  be  healed 
till  I  reached  Mendoza. 

This  was  the  first  gaucho  hut  I  had  entered,  and  though  I 
thought  at  the  time  that  it  was  a  wretched  hovel,  the  walls 
being  of  mud,  and  covered  with  reeds,  I  found  afterward  that  it 
deserved  to  be  considered  a  palace,  furnished  even  with  taste 
and  luxury.  In  fact,  it  contained  a  table,  and  several  chairs, 
with  seats  made  of  stretched  hide,  and  we  were  even  supplied 
with  a  table-cloth,  though  it  was  rather  the  worse  for  several 
weeks'  use,  and  forks — every  one  of  course  is  expected  to  carry 
his  own  knife.  These  were  articles  I  then  thought  by  no  means 
superfluous.  At  dinner  we  all  ate  the  meat  out  of  one  large 
dish,  standing  in  the  middle  of  the  table.  Several  children 
dined  with  us,  and  one  who  sat  next  me,  a  rosy-faced,  dark- 
eyed  friendly  little  fellow — with  long  silken  fringes  to  his  eyes, 
and  beautiful  curly  brown  hair,  would  really  have  interested  me, 
if  he  had  not  kept  his  long  spoon  so  active,  and  so  very  close 
under  his  nose. 

Dinner  did  not  last  long.  Fresh  horses  were  brought,  and  in 
an  incredibly  short  time,  packed  and  saddled,  and  away  we  went 
toward  the  next  station,  where  we  intended  to  stop  all  night. 

The  correo  is  the  regular  and  only  post  that  goes  from  Buenoa 
Ayres  to  the  interior,  and  keeps  up  tolerably  regular  communi- 
cation with  Chili,  San  Jago,  and  Valparaiso.  The  correo  from 
San  Jago  brings  the  mail  across  the  Cordilleras,  in  summer  at 
stated  times,  and  in  winter  whenever  the  snow  permits  ;  and  at 
Mendoza  he  meets  the  correo  from  Buenos  Ayres,  with  whom  he 


A  RIDE  ACROSS  THE  PAMPAS.  57 

exchanges  mails.  The  post  starts  every  month  from  Buenos 
Ayres,  and  two  correos  proceed  with  it  alternately. 

The  house  at  which  we  were  to  pass  the  night,  was  six  leagues 
farther  on,  and  was  called  the  Canada  de  Escobar.  It  was  as 
dirty  as  the  previous  one,  the  denizens  were  as  squalid,  and  the 
mate- tubes  as  hot.  At  the  same  time  the  hut  lay  dull  and  lone- 
some in  the  wide  and  open  plain,  no  field,  no  garden  at  hand,  not 
even  an  inclosure  for  horses  or  cattle,  only  a  few  posts,  the  rough 
trunks  of  some  willow-trees,  were  driven  into  the  ground  round 
the  hovel,  and  encircled  a  space  of  about  twenty  paces  in  diameter. 

I  can  stand  a  great  deal  of  discomfort,  and  never  complain  of 
a  hard  bed  or  a  frugal  meal,  but  the  abominable  filth  which  I 
met  every  where  here,  the  dirty  spoons  and  forks  and  dishes, 
and,  above  all,  the  slatternly  habits  and  squalor  of  the  women, 
spoiled  my  appetite  at  the  outset  of  my  journey.  I  had  not  yet 
got  used  to  it — and  I  hoped  that  I  never  should — but  I  did  not 
then  know  the  worst. 

The  next  morning  I  was,  however,  compensated  for  all  my 
sufferings,  real  and  imaginary.  The  air  was  fresh  and  bracing ; 
the  clear  blue  sky  stretched  pleasantly  over  the  verdant  plain, 
and  the  sight  of  peaceful  herds,  grazing  every  where  on  the  soft 
and  luxuriant  turf,  made  me  forget  all  the  miseries  of  the  hut — 
fleas  included.  Our  horses  were  soon  ready,  and  away  we  went, 
scampering  over  the  plain,  while  on  every  side  we  beheld  troops 
of  wild  horses,  playing  and  chasing  each  other  in  the  sunny  light, 
and  continually  came  on  solitary  little  ponds,  teeming  with  wild 
ducks,  and  surrounded  by  plovers,  storks,  and  cranes. 

High  overhead  flew  long  chains  of  wild  geese  and  swans,  and 
on  the  ground  large  and  comfortable-looking  water- turkeys  strut- 
ted about,  or  broke  through  the  low  reeds  on  the  margin  of  the 
ponds,  and  cackled  to  each  other  incessantly.  Little  screech- 
owls  sat  before  their  holes,  easily  distinguished  by  the  heap  of 
yellow  earth  thrown  up  around.  On  the  rich  clover  and  grass 
reposed  herds  of  well-fed  cattle,  or  young  lambs  frisked  round 
their  bleating  mothers ;  and  wild  steeds  neighing  aloud,  were 
answered  by  our  panting  horses,  as  they  threw  back  their  manes, 
and  snuffed  the  pure  and  balmy  air. 

That  night  I  was  as  hungry  as  a  wolf,  having  had  nothing  to 
eat  for  four-and-twenty  hours,  but  my  landlady  did  not  seem  any 
advance  on  her  precursors.  The  meat  was  served  up  in  an  old 

c* 


58  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

wooden  bowl,  which  had  not  seen  warm  water  or  a  dish-cloth 
for  at  least  a  fortnight.  I  thought  to  have  an  alleviation  of  the 
fare  in  one  thing,  and  was  resolved  to  make  some  honest  green 
tea,  instead  of  the  stuff  they  call  mate.  Boiling  water  being 
procured,  tea  was  soon  made,  and  I  was  just  preparing  to  enjoy 
it  in  the  usual  and  natural  way,  when,  bless  me  !  such  an  uproar 
arose  in  the  hut :  "  He's  going  to  drink  it,"  cried  the  hostess, 
slapping  her  hands  together  in  astonishment.  Of  course  I  was, 
but  up  started  the  old  man — and  how  the  knave  grinned  as  he 
did  so  ! — and  presented  me  with  a  bombilla — the  same  that  the 
old  hag  had  used  five  minutes  before  for  sucking  her  mate— and 
I  actually  had  to  take  my  tea  through  this  horrible  blow-pipe, 
for  every  time  I  tried  to  get  rid  of  it,  and  to  drink  my  tea  in  a 
Christian-like  manner,  I  raised  such  a  storm  of  derision,  that  at 
last  I  gave  up  the  point  in  despair. 

At  this  place  I  first  saw  an  Argentine  corn-crib,  or  barn,  and 
a  most  singular  concern  it  was.  Their  barns,  like  every  thing 
else,  are  made  of  raw  hide.  An  ox  is  stripped  of  its  hide  in  such 
a  way  as  to  split  only  the  back,  leaving  every  other  part  of  the 
hide  entire  ;  the  feet  are  then  sown  up,  and  after  the  natural 
apertures  have  all  been  closed,  the  whole  is  swung  on  four  posts, 
about  seven  feet  high,  when  it  is  filled  with  wheat,  and  the  slit 
above  covered  by  another  piece  of  raw  hide,  completing  the 
crib. 

The  third  day  we  reached  the  small  town  or  village  of  Arre- 
cifes,  on  a  creek  of  the  same  name.  Here  I  found  an  American, 
in  the  service  of  the  republic,  who  had  married  a  young  native 
lady  and  lived  very  comfortable,  as  he  said,  in  the  midst  of  a 
population  entirely  Spanish.  "We  made  but  a  short  halt  at  Arre- 
cifes — just  long  enough  to  change  horses,  and  give  the  correo  a 
chance  of  getting  a  supply  of  aqua  ardiente  for  his  drinking  horns, 
of  which  he  had  a  couple  swinging  across  his  saddle  ;  but  1 
passed  a  very  pleasant  half-hour  at  the  house  of  the  American, 
and  felt  very  sorry  to  leave  him  so  soon. 

In  our  way  onward  I  saw  how  cruelly  the  Spaniards  treat 
their  horses.  The  stage  was  a  distance  of  eight  leagues,  and  we 
accomplished  it  at  full  speed ;  while  the  correo,  whenever  the 
poor,  broken-down  pack-horse  wanted  only  to  blow  a  bit,  came 
mercilessly  down  upon  it  with  his  long  whip,  though  I,  for  my 
part,  would  have  willingly  given  the  horses  rest.  But  what  could 


A  HIDE  ACEOSS  THE  PAMPAS.  59 

I  do?     I  had  to  stick  to  the  correo,  and  could  not  even  spare  my 
own  animal. 

On  we  went.  Hardly  were  we  in  the  saddle  when  the  correo 
cries  "  Gallop  !"  cuts  the  pack-horse  over  the  hips  with  his  long 
whip,  and  away  we  fly  across  the  Pampas.  Hold  the  bridle 
tight  in  your  hand,  dear  reader,  and  look  well  for  your  path. 
Badgers  and  owls  have  their  holes  here  at  every  step,  and  if  you 
do  not  help  your  horse  a  little  with  your  eyes,  you  may  both  kiss 
the  ground.  The  correo  is  already  a  long  way  in  front,  you  have 
spared  your  animal  too  much.  Away  with  you,  and  take  care 
of  the  reedy  grass  ahead  ;  for  it  covers  a  swamp.  A  little  more 
to  the  left  the  ground  is  harder,  but  it  is  full  of  half-concealed 
holes,  and  yet  must  be  passed  in  haste  ;  for  the  night  is  fast 
coming  on,  and  your  guide  will  soon  be  beyond  reach,  while 
path  and  road  no  longer  exist. 

As  I  came  up,  the  old  correo  sat  his  horse  stiff  and  motionless ; 
while  his  long  and  heavy  poncho,  streaming  out  with  every 
movement,  flapped  against  his  shoulders ;  and  only  his  right 
arm,  as  it  struck  out  with  the  relentless  whip,  showed  that  he 
had  power  to  move.  "  On,  on  !"  "this  was  his  only  thought. 
The  steed  that  bore  him  had  no  hold  on  his  sympathies  :  it  was 
only  a  horse  ;  and  if  it  carried  its  load  to  the  door  of  the  next 
station,  it  might  lie  down  and  die  for  all  he  cared. 

I  rode  myself  one  of  the  poorest  horses  I  had  yet  seen  in  the 
Pampas  :  it  stumbled  at  every  other  step,  and  I  was  continually 
wondering  why  we  did  not  both  come  down  together.  At  last 
we  came  to  a  low,  soft  spot,  where  the  grass  was  very  luxuriant ; 
but  the  soil,  as  if  elastic,  gave  way  at  every  tread.  My  poor 
horse  bore  up  a  good  while,  till,  just  as  we  were  coming  on  drier 
ground,  it  came  right  down  on  its  nose,  and  pitched  me  overhead. 
I  was  up  in  a  second,  and  replacing  the  saddle-bags,  the  strap 
of  which  had  been  broken  by  the  fall,  got  in  the  saddle  again, 
and  followed  the  old  correo  and  postillion,  who,  I  really  believe, 
had  not  even  looked  round  after  me,  to  see  if  I  was  coming.  But 
they  were  in  the  right :  I  was  old  enough  to  take  care  of  myself; 
and  setting  spurs  to  my  horse,  I  soon  recovered  my  distance. 

It  was  now  getting  dark,  and  we  had  yet  a  long  way  to  go. 
The  appearance  of  the  plain  began  to  be  very  peculiar.  As 
night  set  in,  a  damp  mist  rose  from  the  low  ground,  to  a  height 
of  from  two  to  three  feet,  changing  the  campo  into  what  seemed 


60  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

a  milk-white,  shoreless  lake,  to  which  the  last  rays  of  the  sun, 
reflected  by  the  clouds  above,  imparted  at  intervals  a  soft,  rosy 
radiance. 

I  had  now  lost  sight  of  the  correo,  in  fact  I  had  forgotten  all 
about  him,  and  left  my  horse  to  choose  his  own  road,  just  as 
though  I  were  not  traversing  a  wide  and  pathless  plain,  infested 
by  wild  tribes,  and  where,  if  I  lost  my  leader,  I  might  wander 
for  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  miles  without  regaining  the  track, 
and  ignorant  of  the  dangers  that  awaited  rne.  But  the  scene 
around  was  far  too  interesting  to  be  neglected  ;  and  still  leaving 
the  bridle  to  my  horse,  I  hardly  knew,  or  cared  whither  we  went, 
if  I  could  continue  to  gaze  on  this  strange  and  beautiful  sight. 

The  most  extraordinary  objects  in  this  floating  sea  of  mist  were 
the  grazing  herds,  the  upper  part  of  their  bodies  alone  being  vis- 
ible ;  arid  the  fog  gathering  in  large  fleecy  masses,  began  to 
assume  fantastic 'shapes,  such  as  bergs  and  figures,  which  seemed 
to  float  on  the  shining  surface  of  the  lake,  while  lofty,  dangerous- 
looking  cliffs  and  glaciers  hung  above. 

It  seemed  that  I  was  always  galloping  down  the  slope  of  a 
steep  hill,  and  that  the  mist  would  close  the  next  minute  over 
my  head,  and  yet  I  had  not  left  the  open  plain,  and  the  sward 
lay  smooth  before  me.  But  as  night  closed  in,  the  mist  rose 
higher  and  higher,  and  finally  became  so  thick,  that  I  could 
hardly  see  the  ground  for  ten  or  twelve  yards  on  either  side.  But 
my  horse  had  in  the  mean  time  done  his  best ;  right  ahead  I 
could  hear  plainly  the  hoofs  of  my  companions  on  some  hard 
ground ;  and  in  a  few  minutes  I  reached  a  hard-beaten  path, 
and  we  all  arrived  together  at  the  hut  where  we  intended  to  pass 
the  night. 

Next  morning  we  started  very  early — the  sun  had  not  even 
risen  above  the  horizon,  and  the  correo  announced  as  the  reason, 
that  we  had  a  long  day's  march  before  us.  "To-morrow,"  he 
added,  "  we  shall  come  in  the  range  of  los  Indies,  amigo."  Los 
Indios — the  long-talked-of  savages,  we  were  already  close  to  their 
war-path,  and  who  could  say  what  the  two  next  days  might  not 
bring  forth.  But  what  matter  ?  Should  they  come  in  a  small 
party,  we  should  have  to  fight ;  and  if  they  came  in  a  large  one, 
we  could  but  run. 

Morning  is  for  the  animals  of  the  Pampas  the  time  of  repose. 
Even  the  hawks  and  buzzards  stand  quietly  on  some  low  bush  or 


A  RIDE  ACROSS  THE  PAMPAS.  61 

mound,  and  pay  no  heed  to  the  little  singing-birds  flying  around ; 
only  long-legged  storks  cackle  and  chatter,  as  they  walk  slowly 
in  couples  or  small  parties  on  the  flat  and  dry  ridges  of  the  ponds. 
All  the  little  ground-holes  are  empty ;  whatever  lives  down 
there,  does  not  show  its  face  in  the  first  hours  of  morning.  The 
herds  of  cattle  lie  chewing  their  cuds  on  the  rich  clover  of  the 
plains,  and  even  the  horses  stand  drowsily  about,  nodding  in  the 
cool  breeze  that  rises  with  the  sun. 

How  different  the  scene,  when  the  sun  is  sinking  in  the  west, 
and  the  low  bushes  of  the  Pampas  throw  their  long  shadows  over 
the  grass  !  Troops  of  horses  and  cattle  are  up  and  feeding,  their 
young  ones  playing  about  them,  as  they  move  through  the  plains, 
only  picking  the  best  and  sweetest  pasture  in  this  rich  pantry  of 
the  Lord.  They  tramp  and  neigh  in  herds  over  the  green-sward, 
and  the  soft  lowing  of  the  cows  mingles  with  the  shrill  cry  of  the 
hawk,  soaring  on  high,  and  seeming  to  have  nothing  in  common 
with  the  tribes  below. 

Hei !  how  the  horses  dart  with  their  riders  through  the  plain, 
the  rattling  hoofs  striking  sand  and  turf  far  out  behind,  while 
they  answer  the  well-known  sounds  of  the  steeds  running  wild 
over  the  expanse  !  Even  the  caves  and  ground-holes  become 
alive,  though  half-an-hour  before  they  seemed  empty.  How 
cosily  the  little  bustard  sits  at  his  door,  keeping  his  eye  on  you 
as  you  approach  !  Yonder  is  another  one — there  a  third,  fourth, 
fifth,  and  sixth.  To  the  right,  just  under  the  waving  little 
shrub,  a  whole  family  are  squatted,  delighting  in  the  gambols 
of  the  youngest,  which  has  come  out  this  night  for  the  first 
time,  and  is  quite  astounded  by  all  the  wonders  of  the  mighty 
world. 

Owls  are  flying  about,  and  far  behind  an  ewe,  with  its  new- 
born lamb,  anxiously  trying  the  distant  flock,  bleats  and  calls  to 
the  poor  little  thing  which  can  yet  hardly  keep  its  feet,  and 
which  she  can  not  leave  behind.  Already  a  powerful  vulture, 
which  has  been  circling  about  the  place  for  some  time,  is  watch- 
ing the  lamb  and  the  mother,  to  find  her  one  minute  only  off  her 
guard,  and  tired  of  waiting,  darts  down  at  last  for  his  prey.  But 
the  week  timid  ewe  has  suddenly  changed  her  nature,  and  with 
bended  head  and  sparkling  eye,  has  become  the  assailant,  but 
only  advances  a  few  steps,  knowing  full  well  that  the  safety  of 
her  young  one  depends  on  her  presence.  The  vulture  is  taken 


32  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

aback  by  the  unlooked-for  courage  of  the  dam,  and  too  cowardly 
to  attack,  but  too  greedy  to  give  up,  follows  at  a  little  distance, 
keeping  his  large  round  eyes  on  the  tottering  lamb,  while  the 
poor  ewe,  now  pushing  and  now  coaxing,  strives  to  get  it  quicker 
along,  out  of  the  reach  of  the  dreaded  enemy. 

An  armadillo  glides  through  the  waving  <grass,  and  the  young 
postillion  raises  himself  high  in  his  saddle  to  watch  its  course, 
and  see  if  the  bended  halms  will  not  again  betray  its  presence. 

And  what  is  lying  there  in  a  pool  of  water,  where  a  small 
sinking  in  the  ground  stayed  the  water  from  the  last  rain  ?  It 
is  a  dying  cow,  the  green  glassy  eye  growing  blind  as  it  stares  on 
the  full  and  luxurious  clover  that  presses  softly  against  her  side, 
in  a  few  days  to  be  infected  by  her  decaying  carcass,  and  tram- 
pled under  foot  by  beasts  of  prey.  And  here,  and  every  where, 
lie  the  skeletons  of  others,  some  yet  covered  with  the  old  dry  hide, 
others  grown  over  with  fresher  and  more  luxuriant  clover. 

Then  comes  our  old  friend  the  stork.  How  watchful  and 
motionless  does  he  now  stand  in  the  small  pond,  peering  into  the 
clear  water.  He  never  even  looks  up  at  the  screaming  flight  of 
parrots,  which  shoot  with  rapid  wing  over  the  plain  to  seek  their 
nightly  resting-place,  nor  the  large  troop  of  fiery-red  flamingos, 
that  have  taken  possession  of  a  neighboring  pond.  Only  one 
angry  look  does  he  throw  over  at  a  large  flock  of  restless,  cack- 
ling ducks,  which  dart  down  in  wild  and  noisy  flight  into  the 
pond,  ruffling  the  water  where  it  stands.  Then  again  it  is 
watchful  as  before,  staring  into  the  dark  and  shining  tide,  to  see 
what  supper  it  will  furnish. 

On — on  we  go.  The  sun  has  sunk  long  ago  behind  the  Cor- 
dilleras, and  night  throws  her  vail  over  the  slumbering  earth. 

That  night  we  were  camped  in  a  small  hovel,  made  of  twigs 
stuck  in  the  ground,  and  bent  together  above.  The  whole  furni- 
ture of  the  house  consisted  of  two  horse-skulls  for  chairs,  and  a 
couple  of  ox-hides  thrown  carelessly  on  the  ground.  In  the 
middle  of  the  hut  was  a  fire  of  bones  and  cow-dung,  and  from 
this  rose  a  perfect  steam  of  stench.  Here  some  meat  was  pre- 
pared for  our  supper,  and  a  most  delicious  flavor  it  had,  broiled, 
without  even  a  stick  between,  on  that  fire. 

But  all  is  nothing  when  you  are  used  to  it,  and  after  an  old 
gaucho  had  gnawed  one  of  the  bones  awhile,  he  handed  it  to  me. 
and  I  picked  it  clean.  I  had  eaten  hardly  any  thing  for  twenty- 


A  BIDE  ACROSS  THE  PAMPAS.  63 

four  hours,  and  having  traveled  about  eighty-four  miles,  was 
above  trifles. 

On  the  21st,  we  reached  the  province  of  Santa  Fe,  and  in 
crossing  the  little  river  Arroyo  de  Pavon,  were  in  the  direct  track 
of  the  feared  Indians.  Five  or  six  houses  were  standing  together 
on  the  bank  of  the  creek,  and  here  we  heard  the  first  account  of 
the  Indians  worth  noticing.  They  had  shown  themselves  in  the 
neighborhood  in  troops  of  fifty  or  sixty  :  all  well  armed,  and 
most  excellently  mounted,  sometimes  even  with  led  horses. 
They  had  also  had  a  skirmish  with  the  soldiers,  attacked  several 
huts  in  the  campo,  and  killed  the  inhabitants. 

The  men  here  spoke  of  nothing  but  los  Indios,  and  had  even 
sent  their  young  women  away  to  sheltered  towns  in  the  interior, 
while  the  men  were  ready  to  defend  their  homes  or  fly,  as  the 
horde  should  be  small  or  great.  Flying  herds,  with  which  the 
natives  came  galloping  up,  and  startled  game,  were  the  most 
certain  signs  of  the  approach  of  the  enemy ;  and  flight  toward 
the  north — where  the  Cordoba  range  had  hitherto  proved  a 
barrier  against  these  wild  tribes — was  thought  the  surest,  and  in 
fact  the  only  way  to  escape. 

The  Arroyo  de  Pavon  seemed  also  in  many  respects  a  boundary 
of  the  country.  From  this  point,  the  gauchos  no  longer  took  the 
paper  money  of  Buenos  Ayres.  Paper  dollars  or  pesos,  worth 
threepence  a-piece,  and  even  the  scenerie,  changed  in  value. 
Hitherto  the  land  had  been  one  wide,  uninterrupted  beautiful 
green  plain,  covered -with  juicy  clover,  and  fresh  luxuriant  grass, 
upon  which  the  well-fed  cattle  grazed  in  innumerable  herds  and 
flocks  ;  but  from  here,  as  if  cut  off  by  the  bank  of  the  river,  the 
country  took  a  more  wintry  aspect :  the  grass  disappeared,  and 
gave  way  to  a  gray  furze,  which  throwing  itself  in  broken  masses 
like  a  vail  over  the  sward,  left  here  and  there  indeed  beautiful 
green  spots  free,  but  only  gathered  more  strength  the  farther  we 
advanced  into  the  interior,  till  it  swallowed  up  the  green  al- 
together. 

We  rode  that  night  till  nearly  ten  o'clock,  several  hours  after 
it  had  become  perfectly  dark,  in  order  to  cover  as  much  of  this 
country  as  we  could,  for  the  correo  was,  in  fact,  far  from  being 
at  his  ease  ;  and  every  hut  we  passed,  he  inquired  for  news  of  the 
red  men.  We  crossed  that  night  a  small  river  with  very  muddy 
banks,  where  I  nearly  sank  with  my  horse  in  the  soft  mud  ;  and 


64  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

when  at  last  we  reached  the  hut  where  we  were  to  lodge,  it  was 
too  late  to  procure  a  bit  to  eat,  although  we  had  not  broken  our 
fast  the  whole  day.  But  next  morning  we  had  time  enough  to 
eat  and  rest ;  a  very  heavy  mist  lay  on  the  plain,  and  the  correo 
and  the  inmates  of  the  hut  had  a  long  talk  together  about  the 
danger  of  starting  in  such  a  fog  and  being  run  upon  by  the 
Indians,  who  like  to  sneak  about  at  such  a  time.  Besides  this, 
we  had  hardly  any  path  to  follow,  and  the  old  fellow  was  afraid 
of  losing  himself. 

At  last,  a  light  air  sprang  up,  and  the  mist,  breaking  into 
loose,  rolling  masses,  drifted  off  toward  the  north,  affording  us 
once  more  a  full  view  of  the  country  The  correo  was  on  the 
watch,  and  scanning  the  southern  horizon,  looked  narrowly  at  the 
various  herds  of  cattle,  to  mark  if  they  showed  any  symptom  of 
fear.  In  this  reconnoissance  I  assisted  him,  having  with  me  a 
most  excellent  pocket-telescope,  made  by  one  of  our  best  opticians. 
Every  thing  seemed  in  perfect  order,  and  the  horses  were  brought 
out  and  quickly  made  ready  to  start. 

As  we  proceeded,  we  saw  but  few  cattle,  the  gauchos  having 
driven  their  herds  as  far  as  they  could  out  of  reach  of  the  Indians. 
The  plain,  however,  abounded  with  deer.  Frequently  we  started 
an  old  buck  from  a  clump  of  furze,  and  the  beautiful  high-crested 
animals,  looking,  with  their  long  white  tails,  exactly  like  the 
stags  of  Virginia,  flew  off  with  long  bounds  over  the  wide  flat, 
never  once  stopping  till  they  got  out  of  hearing  of  the  horses.  I 
was  at  first  astonished  to  find  them  so  wild,-  the  gauchos  having 
no  guns ;  but  in  truth  the  deer  perhaps  dreaded  more  their  lassos 
and  bolas  and  fleet  horses,  which  rarely  fail  of  insuring  sport. 

Galloping  thus  for  a  couple  of  hours,  I  forgot  all  about  the 
Indians  ;  but  all  at  once  I  saw  ahead  of  us,  and  right  in  our  path, 
about  half-a-mile  distant,  a  party  of  the  most  singular-looking 
beings  I  had  ever  beheld,  coming  over  the  rise  of  a  low  undulat- 
ing swell  of  land.  That  they  were  not  men,  I  saw  at  a  glance ; 
but  it  was  equally  clear  that  they  were  not  quadrupeds  ;  and  yet, 
as  I  looked  again  they  seemed  as  if  they  were  really  long-legged 
naked  men,  running  with  a  load  upon  their  backs  over  the  plains. 
The  correo  smiled  as  he  saw  how  narrowly  I  watched  these 
strange  objects,  and  told  me  they  were  ostriches. 

Ostriches !  the  first  I  had  ever  beheld  in  a  wild  state,  ostriches 
which  chased  one  another  over  the  wide  Pampas,  striking  the  air 


A  RIDE  ACROSS  THE  PAMPAS.  65 

with  their  short,  awkward  wings,  and  throwing  their  long  naked 
legs  to  the  right  and  left  as  if  they  were  sticks  hanging  under 
their  belly.  But  their  demeanor  quickly  changed  as  soon  as  they 
heard  the  clatter  of  our  horses'  hoofs,  and  in  an  instant  they  drew 
up  and  stood  as  if  cut  out  of  stone,  so  still  and  motionless.  Then 
they  flew  over  the  plains  as  if  carried  by  the  pampero,  and  soon 
disappeared.  Nor  is  it  easy  to  overtake  them  when  they  once 
take  flight ;  and  the  gaucho,  when  this  is  his  object,  has  to  come 
upon  them  unawares,  and  can  only  take  them  after  a  long  and 
tedious  chase. 

I  ought  to  say  a  few  words  about  the  lasso,  at  least  about  the 
bolas,  for  I  suspect  my  English  reader  has  heard  the  lasso  de- 
scribed often  enough.  The  bolas  are  small  stones  from  three  to 
four  inches  in  diameter,  and  each  is  sewn  tightly  up  in  a  piece  of 
raw  hide,  to  which  is  fastened  a  long  strip  of  the  same  material, 
about  four  or  five  feet  long,  and  all  these  three  short  ropes  are 
tied  together  at  the  end.  When  the  bolas  is  to  be  thrown,  one 
is  taken  in  the  right  hand,  and  the  others  being  swung  in  a  wide 
circle  round  the  head  to  give  them  power  and  weight,  the  bolas 
is  impelled  forward,  very  much  like  the  lasso,  by  a  peculiar  turn 
of  the  wrist,  so  that  when  released  by  the  hand,  the  three  bolas 
or  balls  spread  out  to  a  triangle,  and  fly  whirling  through  the  air 
till  one  of  them  finds,  in  the  object  aimed  at,  resistance,  and  is 
stopped,  when  the  other  two,  striking  round  with  the  same  force, 
entangle  and  throw  down,  and  sometimes  even  kill  the  destined 
victim,  whether  man  or  beast.  I  have  seen  horses  brought  down 
by  these  bolas  as  if  they  had  been  struck  by  lightning,  and  the 
force  with  which  they  come  is  sufficient  to  break  a  horse  or  bull's 
leg. 

The  bolas  form,  with  a  lance  fourteen  feet  in  length,  the  prin- 
cipal weapons  of  the  Indians  ;  and  they  possess  great  dexterity  in 
using  them,  as  well  as  the  lance  which  they  carry,  galloping  up 
to  the  enemy,  in  an  up-and-down  swinging  motion,  till  they  strike 
at  the  mark.  It  is  made  out  of  a  kind  of  bamboo  or  cane,  and  is 
furnished  with  an  iron  point.  The  correo  told  me  it  was  all  but 
impossible  to  avert  a  blow,  from  such  a  lance,  on  account  of  the 
swinging  of  the  point ;  and  the  Pampas  themselves  have  such 
skill  in  the  use  of  this  weapon,  that  passing  by  at  full  speed,  they 
will  strike  a  dollar  without  ever  missing. 

The  gauchos,  are,  in  all  these  exercises,  hardlv  inferior  to  the 


66  JOURNEY  HOUND  THE  WORLD. 

aborigines.  Half-Indians  themselves,  they  throw  lassos  and  bolas 
with  the  same  dexterity ;  and  it  is  a  splendid  sight  to  see  those 
wild,  savage  men  on  their  panting  steeds,  their  ponchos  stream- 
ing out  behind,  the  wide  noose  of  the  lasso  whirling  round  their 
heads,  and  man  and  horse  as  if  one  being,  following,  with  mad- 
dening speed,  the  dashing,  flying  herds,  while  the  birds  of  prey 
circle  overhead ;  the  green  plain,  the  bltie  sky,  the  picturesque 
groups  of  pursuers  and  pursued,  changing  with  every  minute  ;  all 
this  leaves  an  impression  on  the  mind  of  the  spectator  which  it 
would  be  difficult  to  describe  and  impossible  to  forget.  Such  a 
spectacle  to  be  properly  comprehended  must  be  seen,  felt :  your 
blood  must  tingle  in  your  veins,  your  own  steed  have  danced 
under  you  with  inflated  nostrils  and  uttering  wild  neighs,  and 
then  it  may  be  conceived  and  understood. 

On  the  23d  we  reached  the  little  town  of  Cruza  Alta,  and  here 
the  correo  stopped  nearly  an  hour,  to  get  all  the  information  he 
could  about  the  Indians.  The  little  place  was  full  of  women, 
who  had  fled  hither,  from  a  fear  of  being  carried  off  by  those  wild 
sons  of  the  Pampas,  a  feat  these  modern  Romans  most  willingly 
and  not  unfrequently,  if  they  get  a  chance,  accomplish.  Of 
course  the  most  dreadful  stories  were  current  about  the  savages, 
and  my  guide  collected  a  perfect  heap  of  murders,  to  spread  dis- 
may far  and  wide  on  our  journey. 

The  next  day  we  were  galloping  along  our  path,  keeping  at  the 
same  time  a  sharp  eye  toward  the  south,  when  we  suddenly  per- 
ceived right  before  us,  first  a  large  cloud  of  dust,  and  then  dis- 
cerned some  black  objects  in  the  midst  of  it.  We  all  stopped  at 
the  same  moment,  and  the  postillion  groaned  "  los  Indies  ;"  but 
my  telescope  told  me  that  it  was  nothing  but  a  large  vehicle, 
drawn  by  horses,  and  coming  on  at  a  ratling  pace.  The  moving 
mass,  as  it  drew  nearer,  proved  to  be  a  large  clumsy  omnibus,  not 
drawn  as  such  carriages  are  in  our  country,  but  by  six  foaming 
horses,  each  with  the  wild  figure  of  a  gaucho  on  its  back,  and 
fastened  to  the  shaft  by  a  ring  in  the  strong  hide  belt  or  surcingle, 
which  is  bound  round  the  middle  of  the  horse.  „ 

When  we  came  near,  the  vehicle  stopped,  and  a  parley  com- 
menced between  the  gauchos  and  the  correo  about  the  Indians. 
At  the  same  time  a  window  was  opened,  disclosing  the  yellow 
and  wrinkled  features  of  an  old  gentleman  within,  having  a  pair 
of  green  spectacles  on  his  nose,  and  who  anxiously  inquired  for 


A  RIDE  ACROSS  THE  PAMPAS.  67 

the  latest  murders.  Five  or  six  other  faces  appeared  at  the  dif- 
ferent sashes,  belonging  to  as  many  boys — the  old  gentleman's 
fellow-travelers,  and  I  found  to  my  satisfaction  that  one  of  the 
boys  could  speak  English.  His  parents  lived  at  Valparaiso,  and 
he  was  going  with  his  tutor  or  professor  to  Buenos  Ay  res.  But 
he  would  answer  no  questions,  only  wanting  to  hear  about  the 
Indians,  all  they  had  done,  and  all  they  were  likely  to  do,  and 
listened  with  pale  features  to  the  dreadful  stories  which  the  old 
rascal  of  a  correo  freely  communicated  to  his  teacher.  To  con- 
sole him,  I  told  him  there  was  not  one  word  of  truth  in  these 
horrors,  as  we  had  seen  no  Indians,  and  I  did  not  believe  there 
was  one  within  two  hundred  miles  of  us.  But  the  Cordilleras  ! 
How  was  it  with  them  ?  The  most  interesting  point  for  me  lay 
there.  Should  I  be  able  to  cross  them  ?  The  boy  answered  : 
"  Yes,  in  summer  time  ;  but  now  they  are  snow-locked."  Snow- 
locked  ?  bah  !  I  began  to  expect  there  was  as  much  foundation 
for  this  conjecture  as  for  the  stories  about  the  Indians.  Indians 
there  certainly  were  somewhere,  but  the  plains  were  wide,  and  it 
was  very  unlikely  that  we  should  meet  them. 

It  was  an  extremely  disagreeable  sight  as  we  proceeded,  to 
meet  such  a  quantity  of  small  wooden  crosses.  We  saw  every 
day  two  or  three,  often  even  more,  of  these  memorials,  and  they 
all  marked  the  spot  where  some  poor  traveler  had  been  murdered, 
not  by  the  savage  Indians  alone,  but  by  the  hardly  less  treacher- 
ous gauchos.  These  are  indeed  a  great  deal  too  ready  with  their 
long,  sharp  knives,  and  revenge  or  cupidity  too  often  prompts  their 
willing  hand. 

On  the  26th,  we  saw  the  first  blue  mountain  ridges,  a  good 
way  off  toward  the  north.  These  were  the  Cordoba  range,  and 
our  direction  lay  to  the  western  point  of  it.  That  night  we 
stopped  in  a  village,  called  after  the  little  river  close  by,  Rio 
Guarto.  Here  we  met  another  correo,  who  came  from  Mendoza, 
and  was  going  to  Cordoba.  He  knew  nothing  about  the  Cordil- 
leras, but  a  great  deal  about  the  Indians  ;  and,  if  he  spoke  truth, 
they  had  chased  him  to  the  very  entrance  of  the  last  little  town 
he  had  passed.  But  there  had  been  only  ten  or  twelve  of  the 
"  brown  devils,"  as  he  called  them,  and  twelve  of  them  should 
not  chase  us,  though  it  was  a  different  case  with  him,  as  he  carried 
no  fire-arms. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  Pampas,  as  well  as  those  of  the  larger 


68  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

towns  in  South  America,  are  very  fond  of  cock-fighting.  They 
like  all  amusements  which  are  attended  with  bloodshed,  and  the 
correo  we  had  met  carried  with  him  four  very  large  and  strong- 
looking  fighting-cocks,  in  different  baskets,  fastened  to  the  pack- 
horse,  which  as  we  all  slept  in  one  large  room,  were  deposited 
in  the  four  different  corners  of  our  chamber,  and  the  cocks 
were  then  taken  out,  and  fastened  by  one  leg  to  some  stakes 
driven  in  the  ground,  and  intended  to  support  a  table-board  or  a 
bench. 

I  was  engaged  writing  letters  till  very  late,  when  I  threw  my- 
self down  on  my  blanket,  with  the  saddle  for  my  pillow,  but  I 
could  only  have  slept  about  half-an-hour  ere  I  was  suddenly 
roused  by  a  most  dreadful  noise,  sounding  like  a  trumpet  in  my 
very  ear.  I  jumped  up  as  if  I  had  been  shot.  Before  I  could 
collect  my  senses,  the  same  noise  burst  from  another  corner  of 
the  room,  and  presently  from  two  corners  at  once.  It  was  the 
cocks  crowing,  and  sure  enough  they  kept  at  it.  Day  was  break- 
ing, though  I  could  yet  see  no  gleam  of  light  on  the  dark  sky ; 
and  though  I  poked  at  the  fowl  nearest  to  me,  to  keep  it  at  least 
quiet,  it  was  without  effect,  and  the  other  three  crowed  all  the 
time ;  so  we  had  it  for  the  remainder  of  the  night,  and  a  pleas- 
ant night  it  was. 

I  had  been  told  there  was  a  countryman  of  mine  living  at  this 
place,  and  not  being  able  to  find  him  late  on  the  evening  before, 
I  went  for  him  early  this  morning.  He  was  a  funny  little  fellow 
— by  trade  a  stonemason ;  but  on  coming  out  here  to  the  Pam- 
pas, and  finding  no  stones,  he  had  become  a  hat-maker,  taken  of 
course  a  wife,  and  was  raising  a  family  of  six  or  seven  children. 
At  this  time  Rio  Guarto  was,  on  account  of  the  Indians,  garri- 
soned with  troops,  and  a  number  of  fugitives  had  taken  refuge 
within  its  walls  ;  and  the  little  fellow  thought  an  eating-house 
would  agree  very  well  with  his  business.  Many  preparations 
not  being  necessary,  he  had  set  up  shop,  got  himself  half-a-dozen 
plates,  two  or  three  bottles  of  aqua  ardiente,  and  some  forks,  all 
placed  behind  a  small  bar  in  his  mud-walled  parlor,  and  the  hotel 
was  furnished.  As  I  entered  his  room,  six  or  seven  soldiers  were 
standing  about  the  bar  taking  their  breakfast — a  piece  of  pudding, 
a  sausage,  and,  a  luxury  here,  a  slice  of  bread  ;  and  a  bowl  of 
coffee,  with  red  pepper  and  salt,  were  standing  on  the  table,  and 
each  man  had  a  glass  of  aqua  ardiente  before  him. 


A  RIDE  ACROSS  THE  PAMPAS.  69 

It  is,  indeed,  a  very  easy  matter  to  keep  a  boarding-house  in 
the  Pampas ;  and  as  they  seem  never  to  wash  plates  or  dishes, 
the  landlady  can  do  very  comfortably  all  the  work,  which  consists 
merely  of  putting  a  kettle  on  the  fire  to  boil  the  sausages  and  the 
water  for  coffee  and  rnat6. 

My  countryman  was  from  the  Rhine,  and  having  lived  better 
than  twenty  years  in  this  country,  had  nearly  forgotten  all  his 
German.  While  speaking  with  me,  he  made  such  free  use  of 
Spanish  words,  that  I  ought  really  to  have  known  both  languages 
to  keep  up  the  discourse.  He  did  not  like  the  Pampas — and  I 
did  not  blame  him  if  he  called  that  uncomfortable  place  where 
he  lived,  his  home.  He  wished  to  be  once  more  in  Germany, 
but  having  no  means  of  getting  there,  or  if  there,  any  means  of 
subsisting,  he  himself  thought  it  a  hopeless  case.  He  had  heard 
that  there  had  been  a  revolution,  but  did  not  believe  it ;  and 
said,  that  if  things  were  bad  now  in  Germany,  they  were  worse 
in  South  America.  He  told  me  the  soil  was  very  productive,  but 
people  did  not  sow  or  plant  any  thing,  as  there  existed  so  many 
bad  "  hombres,"  who  would  steal  the  produce  a  great  deal  faster 
than  it  could  grow.  With  respect  to  politics,  he  only  spoke  the 
common  sentiment  of  the  people.  Rosas,  then  at  the  head  of  the 
government,  kept  the  country  quiet ;  but  how  long  would  his 
rule  last  ?  A  new  revolution  would  bring  a  new  president,  and 
how  would  the  wild  gauchos  in  the  Pampas  behave  then  ?  Even 
now  they  were  hard  to  manage,  and  always  ready  for  riot  and 
plunder.  Would  the  next  government  be  strong  enough  to  keep 
them  in  order  ? 

This  universal  apprehension  explains  why  no  improvement  is 
ever  attempted  in  the  country ;  all  are  afraid  of  a  new  revolution, 
and  seem  willing  to  keep  themselves  in  the  best  circumstances  for 
such  a  contingency — that  is,  not  to  encumber  themselves  with 
any  property. 

I  left  my  countryman  as  I  had  found  him.  His  life,  he  said, 
was  very  miserable.  Civility  was  not  to  be  found  among  the 
gauchos,  and  if  once  in  a  way  a  countryman  arrived,  it  was 
always  exactly  as  with  me  :  he  stopped  for  an  hour  or  two,  and 
was  gone. 

On  the  27th  we  reached  a  little  town,  also  garrisoned  with 
soldiers  and  called  Achiras ;  and  the  next  day  galloped  from 
morning  till  night  through  a  most  desolate  and  barren  stretch  of 


70  JOURNEY  HOUND  THE  WOULD. 

country  without  any  road  and  riding  over  in  a  straight  line  toward 
a  distant  hill  which  we  could  just  see  on  the  horizon.  This  emi- 
nence was  called  El  Morro,  and  we  reached  it  late  in  the  after- 
noon. On  the  other  side  we  found  a  camp  of  soldiers,  and  here 
they  were  really  required,  for  the  Indians  had  shown  themselves 
in  the  neighborhood.  At  the  hut  where  we  changed  horses,  the 
mountain  home  of  two  young  persons,  the  host  told  us  that  they 
had  not  long  ago  killed  his  brother.  He  also  showed  us  one  of 
their  lances  taken  in  fight.  It  was  a  bamboo-pole,  fourteen  feet 
long,  with  an  old  bayonet  fastened  at  the  end. 

Round  the  camp  grazed  several  troops  of  horses,  guarded  by 
young  fellows,  and  wild-looking  enough  to  be  Indians  themselves. 
They  had  to  keep  the  horses  ready  for  the  soldiers  to  spring  in 
the  saddle  at  a  moment's  warning,  and  guards  were  stationed  on 
the  top  of  the  hill  to  watch  the  surrounding  country. 

The  soldiers'  camp  at  the  very  foot  of  the  Morro  was  a  scene  of 
great  animation,  with  its  troops  of  horses  and  camp-fires,  and 
whole  bevies  of  women,  either  busy  in  the  tents  and  huts,  or 
broiling  meat  on  the  fire  and  carrying  fuel  from  the  nearest 
shrubs  ;  yet  it  was  certainly  more  like  a  camp  of  gipsies  than  of 
soldiers. 

We  started  with  fresh  horses,  though  they  were  the  worst  we 
had  had  through  the  whole  route ;  all  the  best,  I  suppose,  hav- 
ing been  impressed  by  the  soldiers.  If  the  Indians  had  attacked 
us  that  night,  we  should  have  been  in  an  unenviable  situation, 
but  as  it  was  we  reached  our  quarters  in  safety. 

In  the  evening  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  witness  an  Argentine 
partridge  hunt.  Galloping  along  the  plain  we  started  a  flock 
which  separated,  and  we  saw  one  dropping  down  again  not  far 
from  us,  in  some  bushy  grass.  The  correo,  with  a  significant 
nod,  as  if  he  intended  to  say,  "Watch  me,  will  you?"  turned 
toward  the  spot,  till  he  approached  within  twenty  yards,  when 
he  commenced  swinging  his  long  whip  round  his  head  like  a  lasso, 
and  encircling  the  place  where  the  single  partridge  lay,  at  a 
short,  quick  gallop,  he  narrowed  the  circle  more  and  more  keep- 
ing his  whip  all  the  time  in  motion.  The  poor  little  partridge, 
meanwhile,  squatted  down  as  close  as  it  could  under  the  grass  to 
keep  out  of  the  way  of  the  swinging  cord,  when  he  suddenly 
struck  downward  and  killed  it  on  the  spot. 

Without  alighting  from  his  horse,  the  old  fellow  picked  up  the 


A  BIDE  ACROSS  THE  PAMPAS.  71 

dying  bird,  and  then  rode  on,  without  having  lost  more  than  two 
or  three  minutes  by  the  incident. 

The  next  morning,  the  postillion  took  a  broad,  thin  piece  of 
raw  meat,  and  put  it — why  should  I  scruple  to  tell  the  reader, 
since  I  had  to  eat  it  ? — under  his  own  seat,  upon  the  saddle, 
covered  over,  it  is  true,  from  regard  to  cleanliness,  with  an  old, 
untanned  sheepskin,  which  had  served  at  least  two  or  three  years 
for  a  saddle-cloth,  and  which  slipped  about  under  him  in  a  most 
distressing  manner. 

"  And  did  you  eat  this  delicate  morsel  ?"  cries  the  reader.  "  I 
could  not  have  touched  it." 

Oh  yes,  dear  reader,  if  you  had  galloped  between  sixty  and 
eighty  miles,  and  really  could  get  nothing  else,  you  would  take 
to  it  readily  ;  at  least,  I  did. 

About  twelve  o'clock  we  met  one  of  the  Mendoza  caravans,  a 
train  of  about  thirty  large  wagons  or  carts  (for  they  all  run  on 
two  wheels),  which  moved  slowly,  creaking  and  jarring  one  be- 
hind the  other,  across  the  plains  of  Buenos  Ayres.  These  wag- 
ons carry  the  produce  of  the  rich  district  of  Mendoza,  consisting 
principally  of  flour,  wine,  and  raisons,  to  the  city,  and  go  com- 
monly in  large  numbers  for  mutual  protection,  not  only  against 
the  Indians,  but  also  against  their  own  countrymen,  whose  mouths 
not  unfrequently  water  at  sight  of  their  rich  freight. 

These  wagons  deserve  a  short  description.  They  rest,  as  I 
have  already  said,  on  two  wheels,  which  are  really  gigantic  in 
size.  The  frame- work  is  tolerably  light,  for  the  sides  are  almost 
always  made  of  basket-work,  having  the  upper  part  covered  with 
raw  hides.  The  high  wheels,  I  was  told,  are  necessary  for  the 
Pampas  in  wet  weather ;  but  they  gave  the  vehicles,  with  their 
high,  narrow  bodies,  a  most  singular  appearance.  Under  the 
wagon,  in  traveling  through  those  parts  of  the  Pampas  where 
there  are  no  bushes,  they  carry  some  wood  for  fuel ;  and  on  the 
back  part,  secured  by  leather  thongs,  a  high  earthen  water-jar ; 
for  part  of  the  route  is  a  perfect  wilderness  of  sand  and  salt,  and 
not  even  drinking  water  can  be  had  for  very  long  distances.  But 
the  water  thus  provided  is  for  the  men,  as  the  oxen  are  obliged 
to  put  up  with  the  brackish  water  found  in  the  ponds. 

The  wagoners  drive  their  oxen  in  a  way  peculiar  to  them- 
selves, perfectly  harmonizing  with  their  southern  indolence. 
Usually  three  or  four  voke  are  fastened  to  the  shaft,' and  to  drive 


72  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

these  with  a  whip,  it  would  need  to  be  a  very  long  and  heavy 
one ;  but  this  would  not  be  agreeable,  and  therefore  they  have 
another  fixing,  which  is  a  very  long  pole,  generally  a  bamboo, 
which  swings  from  the  fore  part  of  the  wagon  in  such  a  way  as 
to  reach  out  with  its  sharp  iron-pointed  end  to  the  farthest  yoke, 
at  the  same  time  being  balanced  at  the  butt-end  by  some  weight, 
it  is  very  easily  managed.  The  driver,  who  leans  lazily  back  in 
the  forepart  of  the  wagon,  needs  only  to  keep  the  bamboo  swing- 
ing ;  being  able,  at  the  same  time,  to  reach  the  first  yoke  with 
its  point.  The  third  yoke,  indeed,  can  not  be  reached  in  this 
way,  and  for  their  benefit  another  point,  about  a  foot  long,  is 
fastened  right  over  their  backs,  and  the  driver  has  only  to  lift  up 
the  butt-end  of  the  pole,  and  the  point  drops  down  on  the  poor 
beasts.  For  the  two  yoke  nearest  to  his  wagon,  he  carries  an- 
other little  pole,  also  sharp  pointed,  and  just  long  enough  to  reach 
the  second  yoke. 

When  attacked  by  the  Indians,  they  group  in  the  same  way  as 
the  emigrant  wagons  on  the  western  prairies  of  North  America, 
forming  a  kind  of  fortification,  half  of  the  wagons  coming  round 
in  a  semi-circle,  and  halting,  while  the  other  half  close  the  cir- 
cle. The  cattle  are  brought  into  the  centre,  and  the  wagoners 
having  lances,  and  not  unfrequently  fire-arms,  bid  defiance  to  the 
rushing  swarm  of  savages,  who  can  not  use  their  bolas  or  lassos 
against  such  an  impenetrable  mass,  and  generally  retreat  with 
the  loss  of  a  couple  killed  or  wounded. 

Our  next  halting-place  was  San  Luis,  the  principal  town  of 
the  province  of  that  name.  Here  the  governor  sent  for  the  cor- 
reo,  and  told  him  that  he  had  very  narrowly  escaped  a  horde 
of  Indians,  who  had  been  lying  in  wait  for  him  farther  north,  on 
the  route  he  usually  took,  when  the  savages  were  on  the  move, 
and  had  thus  missed  us.  They  had  advanced  this  year  farther 
up  toward  the  north,  as  the  spies  reported  to  the  governor,  than 
ever  they  had  before,  and  had  even  ventured  into  the  mountains, 
which  they  had  not  left  when  the  messengers  came  off  to  San 
Luis  with  the  unwelcome  news,  as  fast  as  their  horses  could  carry 
them.  A  corps  of  cavalry  was  instantly  sent  out  after  them,  to 
cut  off  their  retreat ;  but  I  never  heard  how  far  they  succeeded. 

San  Luis  is  about  seventy-seven  leguas  from  the  foot  of  the 
Cordilleras,  and  we  could  see  from  here  the  blue  range  of  the 
vast  mountains  as  plain  as  if  they  had  been  within  a  distance. 


A  RIDE  ACROSS  THE  PAMPAS.  73 

of  twenty  miles.  The  ridge  stretched  itself  like  an  immense 
monster,  with  its  snow-filled  chasms — a  gigantic  snake  of  ice, 
between  the  sunny  valleys  of  the  south. 

From  San  Luis  our  road  lay  through  a  perfect  desert — a  sandy 
flat  full  of  thorns  and  myrtle-bushes,  with  no  water,  no  cool  or 
shady  place  at  which  man  or  beast  could  refresh.  Through  a 
distance  of  twelve  leagues — and  they  seemed  twenty  in  that 
desolate  district — we  saw  scarcely  a  living  thing,  only  once  a 
lonesome  sparrow,  and  shortly  afterward  a  single  buzzard  ;  and 
this  last  passed  over  the  dry  and  dusty  bushes  with  a  starved, 
melancholy  look,  depressing  to  behold. 

The  next  day  we  had  the  same  country  ;  nothing  but  sand, 
sand,  sand,  myrtle  and  thorns,  and  low  dry  bush,  with  singular 
crumbling  wood — the  correo  did  not  even  know  the  name  of  it. 
in  Spanish.  It  had  a  veiny,  rough  stem,  from  about  one  to  two 
inches  thick,  and  I  could  crush  it  very  easily  between  my  fingers. 
I  counted  five  distinct  kinds  of  myrtle.  On  one  the  leaves  looked 
exactly  like  oak-leaves,  though  not  much  larger  than  those  of  a 
common  myrtle  ;  another  bush  had  leaves  shaped  like  a  sharp- 
cut  heart,  but  all  were  like  our  myrtle  in  blossom  and  seed. 

This  day  we  only  changed  horses  once.  There  was  no  place 
where  a  station  could  be  erected,  owing  to  the  want  of  water ; 
arid  the  poor  beasts  hajl  first  to  make  thirteen,  and  the  next, 
sixteen  leagues,  without  any  thing  to  eat,  there  being  not  so 
much  as  a  blade  of  grass  that  whole  distance.  It  was  a  weari- 
some ride,  and  what  a  stretch  for  the  poor  pack-horse,  with  about 
two-hundred  pounds  upon  its  back,  and  going  half  the  way  in  a 
gallop,  over  sinking  sand,  the  old  correo  whipping  it  continually, 
and  wanting  to  keep  in  a  gallop,  the  whole  distance.  But  that 
was  impossible,  the  soft  sand  being  too  fatiguing.  The  horses, 
however,  stood  it  well ;  but  next  day,  when  the  station  people 
brought  us,  in  just  such  another  wilderness,  a  pack-horse,  whose 
back  was  one  perfect  sore  from  neck  to  hip,  and  wanted  it  to 
gallop  a  stage  of  ten  leagues,  exhausted  nature  for  once  gave  in, 
and  the  poor  beast  dropped  down  in  the  path,  without  being  able 
to  rise  again.  The  packs  were  then  removed  from  its  back,  and 
put  on  the  postillion's  horse,  the  correo  taking  the  large  portman- 
teau on  his  own,  and  away  we  went,  leaving  the  postillion  behind 
with  the  helpless  brute,  for  which  he  could  not  procure  a  drop 
of  water  or  a  handful  of  grass.  Nor  had  he,  poor  fellow,  a  piece 

D 


74  JOURNEY  HOUND  THE  WORLD. 

of  bread  or  a  drop  of  any  thing  to  drink  himself,  and  the  only 
water  was  a  little  muddy  and  brackish  pond  about  half  a  mile 
distant.  For  this  my  correo  did  not  care  :  the  one  was  only  a 
horse,  the  other  a  peon,  a  servant,  to  be  treated  but  little  better 
than  a  slave. 

In  truth,  I  was  astonished  when  I  first  entered  the  republic,  to 
see  how  contemptuously  the  cavalleros  treated  the  lower  classes. 
They  call  their  country  a  republic,  and  the  inhabitants  republic- 
ans, but  I  had  another  idea  of  that  form  of  government  till  I 
came  here.  The  peon  of  South  America — for  I  found  afterward 
the  same  thing  in  Chili — is  treated  very  little  better  than  the 
colored  man  in  the  United  States.  If  he  approached  a  superior, 
it  is  cap  in  hand — he  dare  not  sit  at  the  same  table  with  him ; 
and  even  while  we  slept  in  the  Pampas,  however  low  and  mis- 
erable our  lodging,  while  we  lay  under  shelter,  the  poor  postillion 
had  to  sleep  outside  in  the  cold,  wet  air,  with  no  covering  but 
his  thin  poncho.  Whether  these  men  were  governed  by  a  chief, 
king,  or  president,  it  would  be  all  the  same.  God  has  given 
them  rights,  but  they  do  not  know  it ;  and  if  ever  they  do  under- 
stand them,  they  will  become,  on  their  emancipation,  worse  than 
beasts  of  prey  delivered  from  their  cage. 

The  2d  of  July  we  reached  at  last  the  little  village  of  Pescara 
6  Rodeo  Chacon,  only  twenty- three  leguas  from  Mendoza,  and 
bordering  that  fertile  province.  Here  we  were  able  to  procure 
the  horses  plenty  of  food  and  water,  and  we  ourselves  got  a 
clean  table,  good  Mendoza  bread,  and  most  excellent  Mendoza 
wine. 

In  the  evening,  just  as  we  were  preparing  our  beds,  tolerably 
wearied  with  our  long  day's  ride,  I  heard,  in  a  neighboring  hut, 
the  tones  of  a  guitar,  accompanied  by  a  man's  voice.  Playing 
the  guitar  is  a  very  common  amusement  of  the  Spanish  race,  and 
I  had  heard  it  often  on  our  road.  They  almost  always  sing  with 
the  music,  but  their  voices  are  not  always  mellifluous.  On  this 
occasion,  I  was  proceeding,  despite  the  music,  to  roll  myself  up 
in  my  poncho,  while  the  old  correo  twisted  for  himself  a  last 
cigarette  for  the  night,  when  the  miserable  song  I  had  first  heard 
was  followed  by  another,  and  now  aroused,  I  listened  with  pleas- 
ure to  the  voice  of  a  master.  My  curiosity  was  now  excited, 
and  though  the  correo  shook  his  head,  and  grumbled  something 
about  being  out  of  one's  senses,  getting  up  in  the  night  to  hear  a 


A  RIDE  ACROSS  THE  PAMPAS.  75 

crazy  old  song,  I  wrapped  my  poncho  round  me,  and  repaired  to 
the  neighboring  hut. 

As  I  entered  the  room,  the  men  moved  aside  for  me  in  a 
friendly  way,  so  that  I  could  have  a  fair  look  into  the  interior. 
I  saw  a  young,  tall  fellow,  his  poncho  thrown  off,  and  having  a 
guitar  on  his  arm,  leaning  on  a  low  bed,  formed  of  stakes  driven 
in  the  ground,  with  a  cow-hide  stretched  over  them,  and  touch- 
ing the  instrument  with  light  and  skillful  fingers.  His  black 
curly  hair  fell  in  long  silken  ringlets  round  his  fine,  maiden-like 
forehead,  and  his  dark  eyes  glistened  in  the  animation  of  the 
song.  He  wore  a  short,  dark-blue  jacket,  and  round  his  waist  a 
broad  embroidered  belt,  common  in  the  Pampas,  and  fastened  in 
the  fore-part  with  six  large  buttons,  made  of  Spanish  dollars, 
while  about  ten  or  twelve  more  dollars  formed  a  kind  of  orna- 
ment indicating  the  wealth  of  the  wearer.  Under  this  belt,  in 
the  back  of  which  was  stuck  a  large  knife,  with  a  beautiful  ivory 
handle,  he  wore  a  parti-colored  cheripaw,  and  his  feet  were  in- 
cased, not  in  the  hide-botas  of  the  gauchos,  but  in  well-blacked 
boots,  which  showed  a  small  and  fine  foot  to  advantage.  His 
neck  was  encircled  by  a  blood-red  kerchief,  and  a  broad-brimmed 
straw  hat  lay  at  his  side.  He  was,  in  fact,  the  finest  specimen 
of  a  wild  young  gaucho  that  I  had  yet  seen ;  and  though  his 
features  were  so  soft  and  even  womanly,  unusual  fire  and  anima- 
tion glowed  and  worked  in  his  eyes. 

I  had  hardly  entered  when  he  begun  the  second  part  of  his 
song,  and  while  the  first  had  been  soft  and  plaintive,  it  was 
wild  and  reckless  now.  At  the  same  time  his  words  struck 
home,  and  thundering  bravos  resounded  on  all  sides,  while  men 
and  women  collected  more  and  more,  till  the  room  became 
crowded. 

I  felt  very  sorry  that  I  did  not  understand  enough  of  the  lan- 
guage to  catch  the  meaning  of  his  song ;  but  I  know  that  it 
touched  on  love  and  war,  and,  I  doubt  not,  had  some  political 
allusions,  for  this  part  of  the  Argentine  republic,  as  I  heard  after- 
ward in  Mendoza,  was  by  no  means  enthusiastic  for  the  govern- 
ment of  Rosas.  When  the  young  man's  song  was  finished, 
another  caught  up  the  guitar,  and  answered  him,  though  not 
with  such  a  beautiful  voice,  but  the  roof  shook  with  the  perfect 
shouts  of  laughter  and  bravos,  which  he  elicited. 

I  remained  at  the  concert  more  than  an  hour,  and  when  I 


76  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

sought  my  couch,  it  was  a  long  while  before  I  could  get  to  sleep, 
so  great  was  the  noise. 

Next  morning,  in  order  to  reach  Mendoza  in  good  time,  we 
made  -  a  very  early  start ;  it  was  hardly  four  o'clock  when  we 
were  roused  by  the  new  postillion — the  old  one  had  come  in 
about  an  hour  before,  having  left  the  broken-down  horse  dead 
on  the  spot  where  it  fell.  We  galloped  along  a  tolerably  plain 
road,  till  the  rising  sun  lit  up  the  country,  and  showed  us  in  the 
distance,  but  now  not  so  far  off,  the  towering  blue  range  of  the 
Cordilleras,  over  which  there  hung  a  most  singular  streak  of 
white  clouds,  spotted  and  striped  with  darker  lines  in  a  very 
peculiar  manner.  I  had  never  in  my  life  seen  such  a  formation 
of  cloud,  but  the  mountains  claimed  for  the  moment  all  my 
attention  to  look  at  the  sky,  and  I  wondered  how  we  could  not, 
at  so  short  a  distance,  distinguish  the  snow  on  such  a  lofty  and 
extensive  range. 

The  first  ten  leguas  of  the  soil  over  which  we  passed  was  not 
much  better  than  that  traversed  on  the  two  previous  days,  the 
vegetation  being  exactly  similar,  except  that  the  bush  was  less 
thorny — in  fact,  there  was  hardly  any  thing  to  be  seen  but  myr- 
tle-bushes ;  but  soon  a  row  of  high,  slim  poplar-trees,  planted  in 
regular  lines,  as  it  seemed,  showed  the  boundary-line  of  the  desert, 
and  we  reached  a  tract  of  plantations,  in  which  orchards,  pas- 
tures, vineyards,  gardens,  and  fields,  alternately  masses  of  scream- 
ing parrots  hung  in  the  poplars,  or  shot  with  nimble  wings  from 
one  field  to  another,  and  hundreds  of  turtle-doves  filled  dark  the 
large  and  majestic  fig-trees,  or  cooed  from  the  foliage  of  the 
orange-trees,  while  well-fed  cattle  and  horses  at  will  roamed 
over  the  pastures.  It  was,  indeed,  a  sweet  scene  for  the  eye  to 
rest  upon. 

From  this  station,  after  a  repast  of  fruit  and  wine,  we  rode 
down  a  kind  of  broad  alley,  with  plantations  on  either  side,  to- 
ward a  low,  flat  hill,  which  at  first  obstructed  our  view,  but  on 
reaching  an  open  place,  we  saw  far  ahead  of  us  a  wide  and  fer- 
tile plain,  dotted  with  houses  and  plantations  ;  and  there — I  in- 
voluntarily grasped  the  reins  of  my  horse — was  spread  before  us 
a  scene  of  enchantment.  I  could  not  turn  my  eye  from  the 
horizon,  though  unable  to  embrace  in  one  long  gaze  all  the  feat- 
ures of  that  wonderful  sight. 

How  can  I  describe  in  words  what,  at  the  first  glance,  even 


A  RIDE  ACROSS  THE  PAMPAS.  77 

the  sight  could  not  comprehend,  and  which  reason  will  scarcely 
believe. 

Stretched  out  in  front  of  me,  as  far  to  the  north  and  south  as 
eye  could  reach,  lay  the  blue  wide  range  I  had  recognized,  even  at 
San  Luis,  the  Cordilleras,  topped  by  a  singular  snake-like  drift, 
which  I  had  thought  at  first  to  be  clouds  and  misty  banks,  but 
which,  parted  now  by  rocks,  and  hollow  clefts,  and  snow-filled, 
snow-decked  dales,  rose  high  into  the  clouds  that  covered  the 
upper  ridge,  and  above,  far  above,  gigantic  peaks  still  shot  up  as 
if  from  the  clouds,  and  sparkled  in  the  sun,  as  it  fell  on  their  ice 
and  snow-crowned  summits.  Following  with  my  eye  those  giddy 
heights,  I  halted  speechless — overpowered — and  as  I  looked  up 
at  the  rugged-pronged  peaks,  on  whose  points  the  heaven  seemed 
to  rest,  tears  filled  my  eyes.  My  heart  wras  too  full,  and  ex- 
pressed its  emotion  in  tears. 

My  companions,  who  were  familiar  with  the  sight  and  cared 
little  about  it,  left  me  behind,  galloping  on  their  road  at  full 
speed ;  and,  at  length,  clapping  spurs  to  my  horse,  I  galloped 
down  the  easy  long  slope,  that  stretched  out  toward  Mendoza, 
though  my  eye  remained  riveted  on  the  snowy  chain,  the  back- 
bone of  a  world  that  lay  before  me  in  gigantic  majesty. 

But  the  road  itself  soon  required  more  of  my  attention  than  I 
had  yet  bestowed  upon  it.  We  were  approaching  a  large  and 
populous  town,  and  signs  of  traffic  and  business  began  to  appear. 
I  passed  strings  of  mules,  laden  heavily  with  the  produce  of  distant 
provinces,  on  its  way  to  Mendoza,  while  others  were  going  back 
with  their  light  straw  pack-saddles  on  their  back,  quite  empty, 
and  running  along  in  a  quick  and  lively  trot.  Passengers,  too, 
were  mimerous,  and  the  country  was  highly  cultivated,  and  dotted 
with  small  homely  dwelling-houses,  here  standing  alone,  there 
sociably  clustered  together.  Looking  on  this  wide  and  fertile 
plain,  it  was  easy  to  understand  how  Mendoza  had  come  to  be 
called  the  granary  of  the  Argentine  republic. 

Reaching  a  piece  of  low,  swampy  and  reedy  ground,  where  the 
soil  was  too  wet  to  favor  agriculture,  I  got  time  again  to  raise  my 
eye  to  the  magnificent  mountains ;  and  a  kind  of  dread  rose  in  my 
heart,  as  I  thought  that  I,  weak,  helpless  being,  should  dare  to 
cross  their  snowy  heights,  where  grim  winter  had  gathered  all 
his  terrors,  letting  them  loose  sometimes  in  gales  and  whirlwinds, 
that  spread  death  and  desolation  around.  But  there  was  also  a 


78  JOURNEY   ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

singular  charm  in  this  consciousness  of  one's  own  strength  and 
courage  withal  to  dare  the  elements  in  their  very  teeth ;  and  in- 
deed I  now  only  thought  of  the  grandeur  and  splendor  of  the 
mountains ;  their  terrors  were  yet  too  distant  to  disturb  the  pleas- 
ure of  the  moment. 

As  my  eye  ran  over  the  wide,  fertile  plains,  and  the  warm 
sunny  dale — for,  though  the  middle  of  winter,  the  air  was  as 
warm  as  it  is  with  us  in  May — I  thought,  how  good  and  righteous 
must  be  the  dwellers  in  the  land,  surrounded  by  this  glorious 
world,  presenting  every  thing  to  lead  them  to  be  good  and  great ; 
but  my  reflections  were  interrupted  by  the  correo. 

"  Companero,"  he  said,  reining  up  his  horse,  "mire  aqua!" 
and  he  pointed  upward  with  his  arm. 

I  looked  up,  and  my  hand  again  grasped  my  bridle,  but  this 
time  in  surprise  and  disgust.  Close  to  the  road,  and  leaning  a 
little  forward,  was  a  long  and  stout  pole,  driven  in  the  soft  ground, 
and  on  the  top  was  a  ghastly  human  head,  with  the  long  matted 
black  hair  and  beard  fluttering  in  the  breeze. 

"  This  was  a  blood-thirsty  murderer,"  resumed  my  guide, "  whose 
last  feat  was  to  butcher  a  whole  family.  It  was  here,  favored  by 
this  swamp,  that  he  and  his  gang  committed  their  atrocities  on 
poor  travelers.  The  miscreant  was  caught  at  last,  and  the  gov- 
ernor had  his  head  stuck  up  here,  as  a  warning  for  his  compan- 
ions. Since  that  time,  they  have  left  the  place,  and  there  have 
been  no  other  murders  here  lately." 

Such  was  the  short  account  of  the  transaction  which  the  old 
gaucho  gave,  while  the  hideous  head  of  the  murderer  stared 
with  death-fixed  eyes  upon  the  glories  of  nature  around,  un- 
equaled  in  beauty  by  any  single  spot  in  the  world — a  dreadful 
mark  in  this  peaceful  scene. 

That  head — a  sight  too  often  encountered  in  this  republic, 
where  also  there  is  hardly  a  spot  at  which  the  traveler  does  not 
come  upon  a  wooden  cross,  the  silent  memorial  of  some  bloody 
deed — marred  all  my  pleasure.  But  the  swift  horses  bore  us  at 
full  speed  toward  the  small  and  friendly  frontier  town  of  Men- 
doza.  Around  us  were  vineyards  and  villas ;  walled-up  fields 
and  gardens  showing  the  careful  industry  of  the  inhabitants,  while 
those  narrow  streets  looked  as  if  they  stretched  out  their  arms  to 
welcome  and  shelter  me  from  all  the  dangers  and  hardships  of 
that  vast  plain. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

MENDOZA. 

WE  entered  the  friendly  streets  of  Mendoza  about  two  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon.  The  aspect  of  the  little  town,  is  entirely  in  the 
old  Spanish  style :  the  houses  low  and  flat-roofed,  with  wide  yards 
attached,  but  of  a  more  cleanly  appearance  than  those  of  Buenos 
Ayres,  but  to  me  every  house  seemed  like  a  home,  for  we  had 
now  left  behind  us  those  vast  plains  of  La  Plata,  so  abounding  with 
terrors  and  dangers.  Behind  lay  the  long  ride  on  horseback  and 
the  blood-thirsty  hordes  of  savages,  and  I  could  now  rest  after  the 
hardships  and  fatigues  I  had  overcome.  The  winter  journey 
over  the  snow-locked  Cordilleras  was  still  to  be  accomplished, 
with  its  temporales  and  yawning  precipices.  But  what  of  them  ? 
They  were  three,  four,  it  might  be  eight  days  ahead,  and  should 
certainly  not  trouble  me  at  this  happy  moment. 

Mendoza,  the  principal  town  of  the  province  of  that  name,  is 
inhabited  by  about  eight  thousand  souls,  and  lies  on  the  foot  of 
the  Cordilleras,  which  seem  to  rise  up  from  the  very  houses  into 
the  skies.  I  had  felt  a  certain  regard  and  esteem  for  the  little 
town,  even  before  I  had  the  pleasure  of  setting  foot  in  it.  All  the 
caravans  we  met,  loaded  with  the  produce  of  the  country ;  all  the 
wine,  fruit,  flour,  bread,  cheese,  aqua  ardiente  which  we  were  able 
to  procure  on  the  road,  where  did  it  all  come  from  but  Mendoza  ? 
And,  certainly,  the  comfortable  appearance  of  the  whole  place,  as 
I  made  my  entry  into  it,  was  in  keeping  with  its  reputation. 

The  town  itself  indeed  is  nothing  extraordinary,  the  quantity 
of  adobe  houses  always  at  first  giving  a  stranger  the  impression 
that  the  next  heavy  rain  must  wash  the  whole  place  into  one 
heap  of  mud  and  tiles,  from  which  the  forsaken  chimneys  would 
look  rather  astonished  at  the  surrounding  devastation.  But  such 
catastrophes  never  happen ;  the  mud  is  stamped  and  plastered 
hard  and  fast,  and  rain  after  rain  wears  off  very  little  or  nothing 
of  the  time-hardened  walls . 


8.0  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

Mendoza  would  be  an  opulent  and  more  flourishing  town,  if  it 
possessed  some  better  means  of  communication  with  neighboring 
countries.  From  the  east  it  is  cut  off  by  the  vast  and  often  dan- 
gerous plains,  which  can  not  be  safely  traversed,  except  by  large 
caravans,  or  in  the  best  case,  by  numerous  droves  of  pack-mules  ; 
and  toward  the  west  lie  the  high,  towering  ridge  of  the  Cordilleras, 
cutting  off  in  winter  all  thoroughfare  for  traffic,  and  not  unfre- 
quently  even  for  passengers,  and  in  summer  affording  only  a  tedi- 
ous and  dangerous  path  for  pack-mules.  In  spite  of  these  disad- 
vantages, Mendoza  is  the  granary  of  the  Argentine  republic ;  and 
throughout  the  summer  sends  in  every  direction,  even  as  far  as 
Chili,  drove  after  drove  of  mules,  laden  with  raisins,  wine,  and 
other  produce. 

Several  foreigners  reside  at  Mendoza,  principally  Englishmen 
and  Americans,  and  I  met  one  Italian  who  spoke  German,  and 
three  of  my  countrymen.  Two  of  these  last  were  hat-makers — 
the  G  ermans  in  the  Pampas  seem  to  take  to  hat-making — and  the 
third  was  a  goldsmith.  But  next  spring  the  traveler  may  look 
for  these  sojourners  in  vain ;  they  had  all  set  their  thoughts  toward 
the  northwest,  to  the  irresistible  diggings.  But  it  was  indeed  a 
pleasure  to  me  to  find  them  at  Mendoza,  for  they  were,  in  every 
respect,  very  kind  and  obliging,  and  treated  me  in  a  very  friendly 
and  cordial  manner. 

I  made  acquaintance  here  with  an  American  gentleman,  Mr. 
Vandice,  who  has  the  merit  of  having  introduced  the  first  print- 
ing-press into  the  Cordilleras.  With  the  enterprise  characteris- 
tic of  his  country,  he  brought  the  press  with  him  from  the  United 
States,  and  commenced  printing  in  a  town  and  country  where 
the  art  was  not  only  unknown,  but  where  he  had  to  create  a 
demand  for  it.  In  this  he  had  at  last  succeeded.  The  Mendozi- 
ans  had  as  yet  received  all  their  newspapers  and  books  from 
Buenos  Ayres.  A  newspaper  he  could  not  establish,  as  nothing 
new  ever  happened  at  Mendoza,  and  any  event  that  might  occur 
would  have  been  known  in  every  family,  before  he  could  have 
printed  it ;  but  after  having  studied  the  Spanish  language  to  per- 
fection, and  to  master  it  more  readily — having  married  a  very 
pretty  young  lady  from  Achiras — he  started  a  monthly  review, 
devoted  to  useful  and  entertaining  knowledge.  But  this  was  only 
the  first  step  in  the  enterprise,  and  he  had  now  to  hawk  the  peri- 
odical out  by  the  single  copy,  leaving  it  himself,  as  he  told  me  at 


MENDOZA.  m 

the  houses  of  the  different  persons  he  expected  to  become  subscri- 
bers, and  who  conceived  the  pleasing  delusion  that  the  obliging 
foreigner  had  presented  them  with  the  "book,"  till  a  bill  reminded 
them  of  the  obligation.  In  this  way  he  got — not  unlike  the 
Yankee  clock-peddlers  in  the  West — a  stock  of  subscribers ;  for  the 
senoras  considered  it  a  kind  of  fashion,  and  he  was  then  on  the 
safe  side. 

Besides  this  periodical,  he  reprinted  the  school-books,  which 
Mendoza  received  from  Buenos  Ayres ;  and  the  State  having,  I 
presume,  no  copyright,  left  him  in  quiet  possession  of  his  spoils. 

After  this,  he  went  a  step  farther,  and  taught  the  Mendozians 
not  only  the  use,  but  also  the  necessity  of  visiting-cards,  things 
they  had,  up  to  that  time,  only  known  by  the  reports  of  daring 
travelers.  He  commenced  first  with  having  them  himself,  and 
spreading  them  through  the  town ;  then  he  persuaded  the  gov- 
ernor to  try  the  experiment,  when  the  vanity  of  the  female  popu- 
lation— who  gloried  in  having  their  names  printed — was  excited, 
and  visiting-cards  became  the  rage. 

But  notwithstanding  his  success — which  was  gained  indeed 
only  by  great  efforts — spite  of  the  greatest  difficulties,  such  as 
having,  for  example,  to  create  his  journeymen  printers,  by  raising 
apprentices  himself — he  was  already  tired  of  the  business,  and 
ready  to  sell  out  and  start  for  the  diggings.  He  had,  in  fact,  a 
strong  bias  toward  California,  and  I  only  hope  he  did  not  after- 
ward give  way  to  it. 

If  outward  show  makes  good  republicans,  the  Mendozians  are 
the  very  best,  for  they  sport  their  red-colored  ribbons,  waistcoats, 
and  every  thing  else  to  excess,  and  their  very  boots  are  striped 
with  red  ct  Federacion  6  muerte."  If  an  article  can  possibly  be 
dyed  red,  they  will  not  have  it  in  any  other  color.  But  this  has 
all  been  changed  since,  and  the  Argentine  republic  has  thrown 
off  its  red  ponchos  a,nd  Rosas  together. 

The  red  ribbons  were  at  this  time  more  rampant  at  Mendoza 
than  in  Buenos  Ayres  itself,  where  strangers  at  least  were  not 
troubled  with  this  nonsense  ;  but  here  no  foreigner  was  allowed 
to  enter  the  palace  court,  without  a  red  ribbon  round  his  hat,  and 
another  in  his  button-hole,  bearing  the  old  device  :  "  Viva  la  con- 
federacion  Argentina :  mueran  los  salvajes.  &c.  Unitarios." 

After  having  lived  such  a  long  time  on  meat,  with  hardly  any 
vegetables  or  fruits,  I  enjoyed  the  delicious  Mendozian  fruits  very 


82  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

much,  and  was  eating  them  nearly  all  day.  They  were  very 
cheap,  and  for  six  cents  (threepence)  I  could  eat  as  many 
oranges,  grapes,  and  figs  as  I  pleased,  for  two  or  three  days  to- 
gether. 

The  Mendozian  wine  is  most  excellent.  It  is  nearly  all  red, 
sweet,  and  with  a  great  deal  of  spirit,  but  the  flavor  is  delicious. 
Like  the  fruit,  it  is  very  cheap.  When  we  sent  for  some  in  the 
evening,  we  paid  commonly  one  real  (sixpence)  for  a  gallon. 

The  vineyards  are  kept  in  a  different  way  here  from  those  in 
our  country,  on  account  of  the  very  warm  climate.  On  the 
Rhine,  and  in  all  the  northern  states,  they  want  as  much  sun  for 
the  ripening  grapes  as  they  possibly  can  get ;  but  in  this  secluded 
spot,  sheltered  from  the  sharp  west  and  southwest  winds  by  the 
Cordilleras,  they  have  rather  too  much  sun  than  otherwise,  and 
therefore  plant  their  vines  in  a  kind  of  arbor,  in  rows,  on  toler- 
ably high  poles,  from  whence  they  reach  over  to  one  another, 
forming  shady  and  covered  walks,  in  which  the  grapes,  after  the 
hot  season  commences,  hang  in  the  shade  of  their  own  leaves. 

Bread,  meat,  and  vegetables  are  cheap  in  the  same  proportion ; 
rents  and  servants'  wages  are  low.  The  country  itself  is  really  a 
paradise,  arid  what  can  man  wish  for  more  ?  Would  not  this  be 
a  happy  asylum  for  all  who  are  tired  of  a  busy  life ;  tired  of 
politics  ?  Of  European  politics  they  would  in  this  place  indeed 
hear  nothing  more,  but  they  would  have  to  deal  with  Argentine 
revolutions. 

On  the  9th  of  July  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  witness  one  of 
the  festivals  in  honor  of  the  Confederation  and  liberty,  as  they 
call  it — just  as  we  call  our  war  in  Germany  of  1815  the  war  of 
liberty,  or  rather  as  it  is  called  by  our  kings.  In  the  morning  of 
that  day  they  had  a  great  parade  in  the  public  square,  and  in 
the  evening  the  town  was  illuminated.  The  soldiers,  a  small 
troop,  regulars,  numbering  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  or  one 
hundred  and  fifty  men,  sauntered  slowly,  and  as  it  seemed,  leis- 
urely through  the  streets  to  very  indifferent  music,  which  some 
negroes  tried  to  blow  out  of  a  couple  of  horns  and  trumpets. 
They  wore  perfectly  white  uniforms  with  red  caps  and  facings, 
and  had  muskets  with  bayonets  ;  but  as  they  drew  nigh,  I  found 
that  their  lower  garments  were  not  all  quite  of  the  color  of  inno- 
cence. Very  great  discipline,  or  regard  to  uniformity,  did  not 
exist ;  some  had  shoes,  some  boots,  and  some  corns  on  their  feet 


MENDOZA.  83 

Others  carried  their  boots  over  their  arms,  one  hanging  down  on 
each  side,  an  arrangement  in  which  the  officers,  of  course,  could 
have  no  objection.  As  they  marched  along,  they  carried  on  a 
very  lively,  and  I  doubt  not  a  very  interesting  conversation. 

The  illumination  was  a  much  more  brilliant  affair,  and  was 
ordered  in  some  parts  of  the  town  even  after  dark,  by  a  parcel  of 
soldiers,  who  rode  through  the  streets,  and  stopped  before  each 
door,  shouting  some  unintelligible  words,  when  they  pressed  on 
to  the  next  one  without  waiting  for  a  reply. 

The  houses  of  Mendoza,  as  I  have  already  observed,  are  built 
after  the  old  Spanish  style ;  in  large  squares,  inclosing  roomy 
yards,  with  hardly  any  windows  toward  the  front  of  the  street, 
and  those  grated.  The  illumination,  therefore,  was  effected  by 
four  or  five  tallow-candles  placed  before  the  house  on  the  pave- 
ment, and  the  boys  in  the  streets  took  upon  themselves  the  regu- 
lation of  the  festivity,  carrying  away  a  candle  here,  where  they 
thought  one  less  would  do,  and  planting  it  in  some  more  favorite 
spot.  The  illumination  lasted  as  long  as  the  fourth  part  of  a 
tallow-candle  would  admit.  There  is  nothing  more  pitiful  in  this 
world,  than  any  kind  of  rejoicing  ordered  by  government. 

Next  day,  I  saw  the  Argentine  cavalry  on  their  return  from 
getting  their  ration — a  piece  of  meat,  which  they  always  hang  in 
a  commodious  manner  on  their  left  stirrup,  and  gallop  along 
through  the  town,  striking  against  the  horses'  legs  and  belly  and 
against  their  own  dirty  feet.  The  cavalry  use  stirrups,  and  wear 
shoes.  The  common  gauchos  in  the  Pampas,  in  riding,  use  only 
small  pieces  of  wood  fastened  to  the  stirrup-leather,  and  which 
slip  between  their  two  first  toes,  sticking  out  of  the  bota  of  raw 
hide,  so  that  the  whole  foot  rests  upon  them. 

These  soldiers  had  to  inarch  out  a  few  days  afterward,  as  the 
Indians — dare-devils  as  they  were — had  crossed  the  desert,  and 
shown  themselves  in  force  close  to  the  frontier  settlements,  which 
sent  for  succour  to  the  town.  The  correo,  to  whom  I  spoke 
about  it,  told  me  he  was  sure  they  had  followed  his  track,  for  the 
Indians,  as  all  the  spies  reported,  had  some  white  leaders  of  course 
from  the  party  of  the  Unitarios  ;  and  as  he  himself  had  brought 
to  Mendoza  some  very  important  dispatches,  and  a  not  inde- 
scribable quantity  of  gold  in  his  old  portmanteau,  it  was  very 
probable  that  they  had  got  wind  of  the  fact,  and  done  their 
utmost  to  intercept  hirn.  On  missing  him  at  El  Morro,  they  had 


84  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

pushed  on  to  overtake  him,  in  which  I  was  very  glad  that  they 
were  foiled. 

All  this  time  I  was  of  course  busy  inquiring  about  the  possibil- 
ity of  crossing  the  Cordilleras,  and  where  I  could  get  a  guide. 
Though  hearing  even  here  some  dreadful  stories  about  the  tempo- 
rales,  or  snow-storms  of  those  regions,  I  was  not  disheartened ;  for 
I  learned,  at  the  same  time,  that  between  the  gales  there  was 
always  an  interval  of  fine  weather,  in  which  travelers,  if  the  snow 
had  hardened  enough,  could  cross  over  in  comparative  security. 
All  the  little  by-stories  then,  of  freezing  to  death  and  getting 
blinded  by  the  sunlit  snow,  fell  on  a  deaf  ear,  as  I  had  already 
heard  more  terrible  tales,  which  proved  to  have  no  foundation. 

My  first  object  was  to  find  a  vaquiano,  and  this  in  fact  seemed 
my  chief  difficulty ;  for  there  was  only  one  man  in  the  place 
willing  to  risk  the  passage  at  this  time  of  the  year,  when  there 
had  just  been  a  very  heavy  snowfall ;  and  he  asked  three  hun- 
dred dollars  for  his  trouble — a  sum  I  could  not  afford.  He  said 
that  he  did  not  like  to  risk  his  life  for  nothing,  and  would  at  least 
have  some  recompense  for  the  peril.  Three  hundred  dollars  were 
at  that  time  to  me  of  more  consequence  than  all  the  savages  of 
the  Pampas  and  the  temporales  of  the  mountains  together ;  but 
the  man  did  not  mean  what  he  said.  After  a  quarter  of  an  hour's 
debate,  he  came  down  to  two  hundred  :  the  next  day  he  was 
willing  to  take  one  hundred ;  and  the  day  after,  I  made  an 
agreement  with  him  to  take  me  over  for  five  ounces  in  gold — he 
finding  mules  to  the  edge  of  the  snow,  and  others  again  in  Chili, 
while  I  was  to  supply  provisions,  and  hire  two  men  to  carry  my 
saddle,  rations,  and  charcoals.  The  sum  demanded  was  then 
about  the  value  of  £17  in  Mendoza. 

It  required  a  couple  of  days  to  complete  our  preparations  ;  for 
we  had  to  secure  provisions  enough  to  hold  out,  if  caught  by  a 
temporale,  for  two  or  three  weeks  in  one  of  the  stone-huts  or  cas- 
uchas,  which  are  built  along  the  winter  track  over  the  mountains. 
For  provisions  mountain-travelers  usually  take,  besides  some 
onions,  salt,  and  coffee,  as  main  stock,  their  charque  and  jerked 
beef,  which  they  prepare  in  such  a  manner  as  to  compress  into 
the  smallest  space  the  greatest  amount  of  nutriment ;  and  for  this 
purpose  they  hammer  down  the  hard  and  tough  charque  as  flat 
as  possible,  knocking  one  piece  upon  the  other,  till  a  mass  of  some 
thirty  pounds  is  reduced  into  about  a  square  foot  of  space. 


MENDOZA.  85 

Through  the  help  of  my  countrymen  I  got  also  some  good  bread, 
and  with  an  iron  boiler,  to  boil  some  water  for  coffee,  or  "caldo," 
I  was  perfectly  equipped  for  the  march. 

But  the  Spaniards  are  nearly  as  tedious  and  ridiculous  with 
their  passports  as  we  are  in  Germany.  Although  I  had  received 
a  passport  vise  from  Buenos  Ayres  to  Valparaiso,  I  had  to  undergo 
the  same  ceremony  here,  except  that  I  got  my  passport  gratis  at 
Buenos  Ayres,  while  they  were  friendly  enough  here  to  charge 
me  five  dollars  for  permission  to  leave  the  republic.  When  I  pro- 
tested against  a  new  visa,  and  told  them  at  the  police-office  of  that 
I  had  already  received,  they  asked  me  very  quietly  what  they  had 
to  do  with  that ;  and  as  I  could  of  course  give  them  no  satis- 
factory reply,  my  only  alternative  was  to  pay  the  five  dollars. 

The  payment  made,  my  passport  went  the  whole  circuit  of  the 
police-office,  out  of  one  room  into  another,  and  I  with  it,  through 
five  different  apartments,  and  past  five  different  functionaries,  till 
it  became  like  an  album,  full  of  autographs,  and  inscribed  five 
times  over  with  the  motto  of  the  Argentine  republic  :  "  Viva  la 
confederacion  Argentina,  mueran  los  salvajes  Unitarios." 


CHAPTER  IX.      '• 

A   WINTER   PASSAGE   ACROSS    THE    CORDILLERAS. 

ON  the  llth  of  July,  having  made  rather  a  late  start  to  reach 
only  the  outskirts  of  the  town,  we  camped  close  to  a  house,  with- 
out  a  fire  ;  but  though  it  was  a  cold  night,  I  slept  well,  glad 
enough  to  have  entered  at  last  on  the  finishing  stage  of  my  land 
voyage.  Our  little  caravan  consisted,  besides  the  guide,  a  Chilean, 
with  a  green  Chilean  poncho,  (a  color  not  particularly  liked  in 
the  Argentine  republic),  of  two  peons  or  servants,  who  were  to 
carry  my  baggage  and  provisions  across  the  snow  when  we  took 
to  walking,  now  all  mounted  on  mules. 

The  morning  rose  in  great  beauty.  The  sky  was  clear  and 
blue,  and  when  the  sun  ascended  over  the  wide  and  ocean-like 
Pampas,  and  even  a  long  while  before,  while  it  was  yet  dusky  on 
the  plains,  the  snowy  peaks  of  the  gigantic  mountains  sparkled  in 
his  rosy  beams,  showing  their  sharp  and  rugged  outlines  on  the 
dark-blue  transparent  sky.  At  last  the  sun  threw  his  warm  and 
glowing  rays  over  the  wide  landscape,  and  over  the  cloud-like 
snow-fields  of  the  Cordilleras,  and  the  birds  chirped,  the  dew 
glistened  on  the  green  leaves  of  the  bushes,  our  animals  trotted 
nimbly  along  the  narrow  path ;  and  even  my  companions,  in  other 
respects  not  very  agreeable  to  look  upon,  sung  and  whistled  as 
much  in  love  with  the  beauteous  morning  as  the  birds  and  mules. 

To  the  right  of  our  path  stood  a  solitary  and  lonesome  little 
house,  surrounded  by  a  small  garden,  and  about  fifteen  steps  from 
the  door,  in  the  direction  of  the  path,  was  a  low,  thick-stemmed 
willow,  where  my  three  companions  suddenly  halted,  and  pulling 
off  their  hats  sat  a  few  minutes  motionless  in  their  saddles,  their 
heads  devoutly  bent  in  prayer.  I  gazed  at  them  in  astonish- 
ment, when  my  guide,  clapping  on  his  hat  again,  pointed  up, 
with  a  grin,  at  the  tree,  exclaiming  "  una  bota"  (a  boot.) 

I  looked  up  and  I  saw  the  foot  and  leg,  up  to  the  knee,  of  the 
same  murderer  whose  head  had  looked  down  on  me  from  the  pole 


A  WINTER  PASSAGE  ACROSS  THE  CORDILLERAS.       87 

on  the  other  side  of  Mendoza,  nailed  on  the  tree.  I  turned  shud- 
dering away  from  the  disgusting  sight,  clapped  spurs  to  my  mule, 
and  galloped  ahead  ;  the  peons  laughed,  but  followed. 

It  may  be  necessary,  no  doubt,  to  hold  up  to  a  people  with 
whom  murders  are  of  rather  common  occurrence,  the  consequences 
of  such  a  crime  wherever  they  turn  ;  but  it  is  certainly  a  most 
disagreeable  thing  for  one  who  does  not  require  this  reminder,  to 
encounter  snch  a  spectacle  every  where  in  his  path.  And  what 
had  those  poor  people  done,  who  lived  in  that  house,  that  they 
were  to  have  this  disgusting  sight  always  before  them  ? 

Leaving  this  accursed  spot  behind  us,  the  quickly  changing 
scenery  brought  new  and  happier  thoughts,  and  my  attention  was 
soon  arrested  by  whole  herds  of  guanakas — a  species  of  lama — 
which,  though  we  were  hardly  four  leguas  from  town,  continually 
broke  through  the  bushes  and  scampered  over  the  first  slopes  of 
the  rising  hills. 

The  guanaka  is  a  splendid  animal,  larger  than  the  Virginian 
deer,  with  a  longer  neck  and  soft,  splendid  wool.  But  there  is  not 
much  sport  in  shooting  them,  as  they  are  not  shy  enough  ;  and  I 
believe  I  could  have  killed  a  dozen  in  a  few  hours,  if  I  had  been 
so  disposed.  The  flesh,  especially  of  the  younger  guanaka,  is 
most  excellent. 

At  a  distance  of  thirteen  leagues  from  Mendoza,  during  which 
we  had  held  nearly  a  northern  course,  we  enter  the  frontier  hills 
of  the  Cordilleras.  As  yet  we  had  seen  no  trees — nothing  but 
low  shrubby  bushes  grew  in  the  dales,  or  on  the  slopes,  where 
flocks  of  tame  goats,  the  property  of  some  mountaineers,  grazed 
and  climbed  about. 

In  the  afternoon  we  progressed  rapidly  in  the  ascent,  keeping 
all  the  time  close  to  a  little  water-course,  with  rocky  and  high 
cliffs  rising  up  on  each  side. 

That  night  we  had  some  difficulty  in  finding  a  good  sleeping- 
place  ;  but  camped  at  last  under  the  shelter  of  a  high,  steep  rock, 
not  far  from  a  small  trickling  stream.  Wood  was  very  scarce, 
and  we  were  obliged  to  be  satisfied  with  just  sufficient  fire  to 
broil  some  meat  and  boil  some  water  for  coffee,  turning  in  after- 
ward, or  rather  turning  out  under  the  open  shelving  rock.  Being 
so  fresh  from  a  warm  country,  I  felt  excessively  chilled  that  night. 
We  had  passed  the  previous  night  in  the  open  air,  and  it  was,  in 
comparison,  warm  to  this  place,  which  I  had  thought  perfectly 


88  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

sheltered,  by  the  rocks.     Next  morning  I  found  the  water  which 
I  had  standing  near  me,  in  a  tin  cup,  as  a  drink,  was  frozen. 

This  was  the  first  sign  of  our  having  made  some  headway  up 
the  mountains  ;  and  after  kalf-an-hour's  inarch  that  morning,  we 
found  plenty  more.  The  little  stream,  hy  whose  hank  we  shaped 
our  way,  was  covered  with  ice,  and  where  it  had  overflown  the 
path,  a  very  common  occurrence,  the  ground  was  so  slippery  that 
our  mules  slid  about,  sometimes  in  a  really  dangerous  manner. 
The  exclamation  by  which  my  Chilean  guide  sought  to  encour- 
age and  cheer  the  poor  animals,  was  characteristic,  it  was,  "  Oh, 
mula,  oh  mula !"  reminding  them  that  they  were  mules — and 
how  could  rnules  slip?  In  truth,  the  poor  animals  tried  their 
best,  and  always  succeeded,  so  that  we  passed  places  where 
horses  would  have  broken  their  own  and  their  riders'  necks. 

Higher  and  higher  we  climbed,  till  reaching  the  first  summits 
we  found  ourselves  on  a  flat  and  naked,  snow-covered  ridge  ;  but 
though  these  hills  are  tolerably  high,  and  would  be  called  in 
many  countries  mountains,  here,  in  comparison  with  the  Cordil- 
leras, they  seem  contemptible,  and  the  Mendozians  gave  them 
the  rather  equivocal  name  of  the  "piojos  de  las  Cordilleras." 

The  highest  spur  of  the  hills  suddenly  opened  a  panorama,  the 
beauty  of  which  I  shall  never  forget.  Right  below  us  lay  a 
warm,  green  valley,  overgrown  with  dark  thickets  of  bush,  trav- 
ersed by  a  small  stream  like  a  silver  thread,  while  running  up  to 
the  rugged,  snow-covered  steeps  of  the  mountains,  which  rose 
almost  perpendicularly  on  high,  towering  even  from  where  we 
stood,  far  up  into  the  clouds,  and  changing  in  color  from  the 
dazzling  white  of  the  sunlit  snow-fields  to  the  dark  hollows  of 
the  sharp-cut  clefts  in  which  no  snow  could  stick,  and  which 
seemed  to  pierce  deep  into  the  very  heart  of  the  mountains 
where  they  opened  their  black  yawning  chasms. 

But  as  the  terrors  of  that  wintry  region  drew  nearer,  I  became 
impatient  to  try  my  fortune  on  its  giddy  heights.  My  vaquiano, 
no  admirer  of  scenery — particularly,  as  he  afterward  told  me, 
when  it  included  any  snow,  which  he  would  have  to  cross — had 
got  on  before  me,  while  I  lingered  to  look  around. 

As  I  ascended,  I  found  tracks  of  the  guanakas  and  also  of  the 
puma,  or  American  lion,  a  kind  of  large  panther,  the  track  of 
which  is  somewhat  larger  than  that  of  the  North  American 
panther.  I  hoped  to  meet  one  of  these  animals  in  the  snow,  but 


A  WINTER  PASSAGE  ACROSS  THE  CORDILLERAS.        89 

my  vaquiano  told  me  they  were  very  seldom  encountered  in  day- 
time, and  only  prowl  about  in  search  of  prey  at  night.  The 
small  tracks  of  foxes  appeared  on  different  places. 

In  the  evening  we  reached  a  valley — a  fertile  spot  in  the 
midst  of  barren  and  snow-clad  mountains.  Here  mules  could 
feed  to  their  hearts'  content,  and  we  ourselves  had  a  good  meal 
of  guanaka  meat,  and  discussed  a  couple  of  bottles  of  wine  to 
strengthen  ourselves  for  our  next  tedious  march.  The  house  at 
which  we  stopped  was  the  last  frontier  of  the  Argentine  republic. 
We  therefore  bought  a  couple  of  horns  of  wine  to  take  with  us 
on  our  journey,  and  the  next  morning  made  an  early  start  up 
the  mountains. 

The  little  mountain  stream,  the  Tucunjado,  that  came  down 
here  in  a  self-opened  valley,  had  its  source  at  the  very  top  of  the 
Cordilleras,  and  we  had  to  follow  its  current  to  the  highest  ridge 
— a  ridge  that  parted,  indeed,  the  waters  of  the  Atlantic  and 
Pacific  Oceans. 

We  kept  on  the  left  shore  of  the  stream,  and  the  chain  of  the 
mountains  opened  before  us  like  an  immense  portal  seeming  to 
admit  us  into  their  inmost  depths.  But  slowly  and  by  degrees 
the  path  again  ran  up,  and  though  at  first  we  had  the  mountain- 
stream  so  near  us  that  we  could  stop  to  let  our  mules  drink,  the 
next  mile  brought  us  many  feet  above  its  murmuring  water  and 
here  I  noticed  the  vestiges  of  the  rushing  torrents,  which  roll 
down  when  the  hot  sun  of  summer  melts  the  snow-fields  on  high, 
and  pours  the  flood  into  the  deep  and  narrow  gullies.  The  tor- 
rents rise  at  least  forty  feet  above  the  height  at  which  the  water 
now  was,  and  immense  rocks,  broken  loose  by  the  powerful  cur- 
rent, are  carried  far  below,  sometimes  several  hundred  feet  from 
their  previous  position. 

At  first  the  path — for  it  was  but  a  narrow  mule  track — led  up 
as  slowly  and  on  as  broad  and  comfortable  a  slope  as  we  could 
wish  for  ;  but  as  the  sides  of  the  mountain  drew  closer  and  closer 
together,  the  path  began  to  run.  by  deep  and  crumbling  banks, 
and  the  mules  with  great  difficulty  picked  their  steps.  We 
passed  now  places  where  to  our  left  the  abyss  lay  many  hundred 
feet  deep,  while  on  the  right,  impending  rocks  hung  high  above 
us.  But  so  gradually  did  the  path  alter,  so  little  by  little  did 
the  ridge  narrow,  and  the  steep  edge  of  the  precipice  draw  nearer 
that  I  did  not  notice  it  at  first ;  all  my  attention  being  taken  up 


90  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

by  the  scenery.  Here  I  saw  the  first  condor,  the  giant  vulture 
of  the  Cordilleras,  hovering  just  above  our  heads.  It  altered  its 
course  in  descending,  and  flew  over  toward  the  other  side  of  the 
hollow,  which  seemed  to  me  hardly  half  a  mile  distant,  but  the 
bird  became  smaller  and  smaller,  appearing  at  last  not  much 
larger  than  a  crow  long  before  that  passage  was  crossed.  There 
I  felt  more  than  saw  the  vastness  of  these  mountains,  and  I  was 
going  to  stop  my  mule,  to  have  a  fairer  view,  when  a  call  from 
my  guide,  warned  me  to  beware,  and  look  well  to  my  path. 

The  path,  indeed,  had  become  so  narrow  that  it  seemed  to  me, 
as  it  wound  itself  round  a  projecting  rock,  absolutely  to  terminate. 
I  could  see  nothing  more  than  a  thin  light  streak,  as  if  drawn 
with  a  piece  of  chalk,  and  I  could  not  believe  that  this  was  our 
path.  The  rock  round  which  it  went  did  not  show  the  least  cut 
or  notch,  where  even  a  goat  could  have  planted  its  feet,  let  alone 
our  clumsy  mules.  The  little  crumbling  pieces  of  stone  which 
our  mules'  hoofs  kicked  ever  the  precipice,  made  me  sensible  of 
the  danger,  falling  straight  down  to  a  depth  that  my  blood  froze 
to  think  of. 

But  this  was  no  place  to  stop  at ;  and  I  observed  closely  the 
cautious  manner  in  which  my  guide  raised  himself  in  his  right 
stirrup,  not  doubting  that  we  were  now  at  the  spot  at  which  he 
had  told  me  before,  and  where  mules  and  riders  were  often 
thrown  over.  I  was  therefore  careful  not  to  irritate  my  mule  at 
a  spot  where  it  certainly  knew  better  how  to  go  than  I  did — 
accidents  having  happened  from  travelers  pulling  their  bridles  at 
the  wrong  time.  My  guide  went  on  very  coolly  along  a  trail 
where  mules  had  to  keep  the  very  edge  of  the  precipice.  Mules 
frequently  carry  a  load  over  this  track,  when  they  are  very  care- 
ful not  to  knock  against  the  over-hanging  rock,  as  the  least  push 
would  send  them  over  the  precipice.  Our  mules,  it  is  true,  had 
no  load,  but  they  were  accustomed  to  carrying  one ;  and  there- 
fore kept  the  extreme  edge,  to  my  great  discomposure.  But 
I  left  it  entirely  to  its  own  instinct,  only  lifting  my  ]eft  foot  in 
the  stirrup,  as  I  saw  the  vanquiano  do,  so  that,  in  case  of  an 
accident,  I  might  throw  myself  off  its  back,  and  cling  to  the 
rock. 

But  why,  the  reader  may  ask,  did  you  not  get  off  the  mule  at 
once,  and  pass  dangerous  places  on  foot  ?  Simply,  my  reader,  in 
the  first  place,  because  the  danger  is  the  same  for  many  miles; 


A  WINTER  PASSAGE  ACROSS  THE  CORDILLERAS.       91 

and  secondly,  because  those  men  who  pass  their  lives  in  leading 
travelers  over  these  mountains,  know  best  where  to  walk,  and 
where  to  ride,  and  I  followed  the  example  my  guide  set  me. 
Nor,  to  tell  the  truth,  did  I  at  the  moment  think  of  any  thing 
but  my  mule,  as  he  moved  slowly,  step  by  step,  round  the  yawn- 
ing abyss,  with  scarcely  three  inches  to  spare  on  either  side.  As 
we  proceeded,  the  path  got  still  narrower,  the  abyss  seemed 
deeper  ;  and  looking  down  once,  between  the  mule's  side  and  my 
stirrups,  I  saw  below  in  the  deep  hollow  a  perfect  heap  of  skele- 
tons— mules  that  must  have  tumbled  down  since  the  last  flood — 
or  their  bones  would  have  been  washed  away.  In  my  horror  I 
forgot  the  warning  of  the  vaquiano,  and  grasping  the  reins  of  my 
mule,  tried  to  turn  it  away  from  the  edge,  which  seemed  to  me 
as  if  it  must  crumble  beneath  its  next  step.  My  imprudence 
was  near  being  fatal  to  me,  for  turning  the  head  of  my  mule 
away  from  the  precipice,  it  lost  its  sure  footing,  stepped  aside, 
and  striking  the  saddle-bags  against  the  rock,  it  stumbled  for- 
ward, and — no,  dear  reader,  no  such  thing — we  did  not  tumble. 
The  mule  planted  its  fore  hoofs  on  a  firm  part  of  the  crumbling 
ledge,  and  lifted  itself  up  again,  just  as  a  small  piece  of  stone, 
loosened  by  the  effort,  fell  noiselessly  from  the  path,  and  noise- 
lessly springing  from  under  us  over,  and  struck  long  afterward 
with  a  dull  hollow  sound  into  the  deep. 

I  need  not  be  ashamed  to  say  that  this  little  incident  made  me 
tremble,  and  I  thought  the  blood  became  stagnant  in  my  veins. 
But  mules  are  splendid  animals  for  such  a  route  ;  and  whether 
for  the  sake  of  the  rider,  or  their  own,  they  proceed  with  the  ut- 
most caution,  as  I  had  now  learnt  from  experience.  From  that 
moment  I  left  my  mule  to  do  as  he  pleased,  and  he  carried  me 
safely  over. 

Just  at  the  end  of  the  passage,  where  the  path  again  turned 
round  a  rock,  which  hid  the  guide  from  view,  I  reached  a  snow- 
drift, or  rather  a  ledge  of  about  ten  or  twelve  paces,  where  a 
quantity  of  snow  had  drifted  from  a  narrow  gulch  ;  and  a  space 
not  six  inches  in  width,  and  even  that  sloping  down,  was  the 
only  footing  left.  Even  the  mule  now  came  to  a  stand.  I 
pressed  his  flanks  with  heels  to  urge  him  on ;  but  the  two  peons, 
who  came  close  behind,  called  to  me  to  alight  here,  and  not  at- 
tempt to  pass  that  place  in  the  saddle.  At  the  same  time,  the 
guide  appeared  on  the  other  side  of  the  rock,  and  I  saw  that  he 


92  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

was  on  foot ;  but  how  to  get  down  on  such  a  place  was  the  diffi- 
culty. On  the  left  side  I  should  have  stepped  down  at  least  a 
couple  of  hundred  feet ;  therefore,  I  must  try  the  other.  Throw- 
ing my  leg  with  a  sudden  jerk  over  the  mule's  neck,  I  slipped 
down  against  the  rock,  the  mule  pressing  as  hard  against  me  as 
it  could,  to  prevent  my  pushing  it  down  the  precipice.  I  dodged 
beneath  his  head,  and  with  the  bridle  grasped  in  my  hand,  led 
the  way  over  the  snow-drift. 

That  night  we  also  camped  in  the  very  path,  though  at  a 
broader  part,  and  not  far  from  the  snow-line  which  we  had  seen 
glistening  above  us  from  the  time  we  first  entered  the  gorge. 
Wood  was  here  very  scarce,  consisting  only  of  dry  thin  bushes, 
which  forced  themselves  out  of  cracks  and  fissures  in  the  rocks. 
Below,  in  the  steep  and  narrow  gulches  that  run  out  toward  the 
Tucunjado,  we  could  still  see  the  green  myrtles,  but  none  reached 
the  height  to  which  we  had  now  climbed. 

Our  mules  had  now,  in  fact,  nothing  to  subsist  upon,  except  a 
very  little  dry  wiry  grass,  and  the  tops  of  the  bushes ;  but  when 
I  regretted  their  hard  fare,  the  Chilean  remarked  that  this  was 
nothing,  being  only  the  first  night ;  and  asked  what  I  would 
think  of  the  second  and  third,  if  I  thought  this  a  privation  ? 
The  second  and  third  !  Poor  beasts  !  I  began  to  be  sorry  that 
I  had  taken  them  so  far  up  with  us,  since  we  should  in  any  case 
have  to  walk  whenever  we  reached  the  snow-line ;  but  the 
Chilean  laughed  at  my  scruples.  They  were  only  mules ;  and 
even  in  summer-time,  when  they  crossed  the  Cordilleras,  had  to 
subsist,  he  said,  for  days  together  without  a  blade  of  grass,  sus- 
taining themselves  on  their  own  dung  strewn  over  the  mount- 
ain paths.  To  obtain  them  some  water,  the  peons  had  to  crawl 
with  them  down  the  steep  slope,  to  a  depth  of  about  three  hun- 
dred yards,  to  the  Tucunjado. 

When  we  came  to  a  halt,  I  questioned  my  guide  as  to  the 
skeletons  we  had  seen  laying  below,  and  he  told  me  that  it  very 
seldom  happened  that  mules  bearing  riders  fell  down  the  preci- 
pice, unless  they  rode  in  the  midst  of  a  drove  of  pack-mules,  a 
practice  now  avoided.  Mules  were  generally  pushed  down  by 
those  following,  especially  if  they  were  young  mules,  here  for  the 
first  time,  and  stepping  one  after  another  higher  and  higher  up, 
till,  at  last,  reaching  those  places  where  they  could  not  turn 
back,  even  when  necessary,  they  pushed  up  between  the  rocks 


A  WINTER  PASSAGE  ACROSS  THE  CORDILLERAS.       93 

and  the  animals  before  them,  to  escape  the  precipice,  and  so 
forced  the  outer  mules  into  the  abyss. 

The  little  fire  that  we  were  able  to  kindle  this  night,  expired 
before  we  fell  asleep  ;  but  being  accustomed,  by  a  long  residence 
in  the  woods,  to  camp  out,  sometimes  in  very  cold  weather,  I  laid 
my  blanket  and  poncho  down  backwoods'  fashion  on  the  edge  of 
the  rock,  rolled  myself  up  in  it,  and  prepared  for  a  comfortable 
nap,  to  the  admiration  of  my  Chilean  guide. 

"  Bueno  companero  !"  exclaimed  this  worthy.  "  If  you  under- 
stand nothing  else,  you  know  at  least  how  to  make  your  bed  in 
the  mountains." 

Next  morning,  after  a  three  hours'  march  over  not  very  dan- 
gerous paths,  we  reached  the  snow  region.  For  some  time  we 
had  been  drawing  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  white  masses  that 
covered  the  heights ;  now  they  surrounded  us  on  every  side, 
leaving,  notwithstanding,  our  own  path  free  as  yet.  But  soon  a 
snow-drift,  blown  by  a  sharp  north-easter  in  a  small  strip  across 
our  road,  gave  us  the  first  warning  of  peril,  and  half  an  hour 
later  our  mules  were  wading  up  to  their  knees  in  the  white-yield- 
ing drift.  Grim  winter  had  drawn  its  pall  over  the  slumbering 
mountains,  and  audacious  human  beings  dared  to  sully  it  with 
their  feet. 

This  day  we  stopped  when  we  came  to  a  little  sunny  space, 
where  the  snow  had  melted  away  from  the  northern  side,  leaving 
a  few  tolerably  strong  bushes  visible,  which  afforded  us  the  means 
of  preparing  some  charcoal,  and  making  snow-shoes.  The  mode 
of  preparing  the  charcoal  was  simple  enough.  The  peons  broke 
down  a  quantity  of  bush,  which  they  heaped  into  two  good 
piles,  and  setting  them  on  fire,  allowed  them  to  burn  awhile, 
when  they  covered  them  up  with  earth;  then,  taking  out 
the  relics,  they  put  them  into  a  small  bag,  which  they  had 
brought  from  Mendoza  for  that  purpose.  The  whole  quantity 
obtained  did  not  exceed  ten  or  fifteen  pounds,  and  I  did  not  see 
how  we  could  make  this  last  for  our  whole  journey,  even  with 
the  finest  weather,  much  less  if  we  should  be  caught  in  a  tem- 
porale,  and  detained  for  two  or  three  weeks. 

Our  snow-shoes  consisted  of  a  couple  of  sheep-skins,  wound 
tightly  over  our  boots,  to  prevent  the  snow  from  reaching  the 
leather  and  sticking  to  it,  while  they  also  kept  the  feet  warm. 
Under  the  sheep-skin  was  placed  a  piece  of  tanned  leather,  very 


94  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

much  like  a  moccasin,  and  corresponding  to  the  sole  of  a  shoe, 
but  fastened  afterward  over  the  foot.  But  these  appendages 
were  only  tried  to-day,  being  worn  only  for  a  short  distance,  to 
see  how  they  would  answer,  as  we  could  yet  ride  our  mules,  and 
we  were  to  camp  in  the  Punta  de  la  Vaca,  a  kind  of  stone-hut, 
erected  for  the  use  of  travelers. 

While  the  others  were  busy  on  the  ledge,  I  cjimbed  about  the 
hill,  admiring  the  giant  tracks  of  the  condors,  of  which  I  found  a 
great  many  vestiges  ;  when  my  Chilean  guide  came  up,  carrying 
something  in  his  poncho,  and  laughing,  asked  me  to  guess  what 
he  had  got.  I  might  have  tried  for  a  year,  and  should  not  have 
guessed  right,  for  it  was  nothing  less  than  ten  or  twelve  pounds 
of  the  most  delicious  raisins.  I  inquired  eagerly  where  he  had 
found  them,  and  he  pointed  to  a  narrow  little  gulch,  which  en- 
tered the  main  valley  about  half  a  mile  below. 

Raisins  in  the  snow !  Here  was  a  phenomenon ;  and  I  must 
acknowledge  that  at  first  I  really  thought  of  the  possibility  of 
raisins  having  grown  up  here  in  summer,  and  becoming  dried  by 
the  cold  and  snow.  At  any  rate  I  would  see  myself  the  place 
where  they  had  been  found,  and  wading  back  that  distance — and 
it  was  about  as  far  again  as  I  had  imagined — I  came  upon  no 
natural  vineyard,  as  I  had  almost  expected,  but  on  some  twenty 
raisin-boxes,  which,  as  I  heard  afterward,  a  mule-driver  caught 
by  a  temporale  just  on  the  edge  of  the  snow  region,  had  thrown 
off  here  and  abandoned,  flying  for  his  life  down  the  mountains. 

The  winter  setting  in,  had  afterward  made  it  impossible  to 
take  them  to  the  place  of  their  destination,  and  they  were  left  to 
the  mercy  of  the  weather,  and  of  passing  travelers,  which  my 
guide  proved  plainly  enough,  would  be  very  equivocal.  One  of 
the  peons,  indeed,  came  down  with  me  to  fill  his  poncho ;  and 
when  I  remonstrated  with  him,  replied  that  if  he  did  not  take 
the  raisins,  others  would  ;  and,  another  thing,  he  liked  them  very 
much. 

Toward  evening  we  had  every  thing  ready  again,  and  moved 
about  a  mile  farther  up  the  ascent,  the  snow  becoming  so  deep 
that,  in  some  places,  our  mules  could  hardly  get  along.  But  at 
last  we  reached  the  place,  "  una  casa,"  as  the  vaquiano  said, 
though  in  truth  it  was  a  miserable  stone  hovel,  into  which  we 
at  home  would  not  think  of  putting  a  horse  in  winter.  And 
winter  we  found  it  here,  where  not  even  the  dry  points  of  bushes 


A  WINTER  PASSAGE  ACROSS  THE  CORDILLERAS.        95 

protruded  from  the  deep  snow,  and  not  a  piece  of  wood  was  to  be 
had  for  a  fire,  and  not  a  blade  of  grass  for  the  poor  mules,  which 
had  also  been  without  a  feed  the  previous  night,  and  would  be 
the  next  night,  on  their  return,  if  the  vaquiano,  who  was  to  go 
back  with  them,  could  not  reach  the  frontier  house  before  night. 
Mules  are  really,  after  the  camels  of  the  deserts,  the  toughest 
animals  on  earth ;  but  even  they  give  up  at  last,  over-burdened 
and  over- worked  by  cruel  man  ;  and  I  met  with  numberless  skel- 
etons of  mules  along  our  path,  where  they  had  fallen  down  dead, 
the  drivers  taking  off  their  packs  and  dividing  them  among  the 
others,  while  the  poor  dying  animals  were  left  to  their  fate,  whom 
fatigue  had  not  already  killed. 

That  night  we  had  to  make  our  tea  from  snow — a  miserable 
drink — the  water  being  too  far  off,  and  too  difficult  to  get  at. 
Next  morning,  after  a  night  certainly  not  very  pleasant,  we  per- 
pared  for  a  snow-march.  The  guide  having  gone  back  with  the 
mules,  one  peon  took  my  saddle  and  saddle-bags  tied  well  together 
on  his  back,  and  the  other  shouldered  the  provisions  and  coals ; 
I  myself  had  my  rifle  with  a  German  hunting-pouch,  in  which  I 
carried  my  ammunition,  one  of  Wedgewood's  manifold  writers 
(by-the-by,  the  most  practicable  writing  materials  a  traveler 
can  use  on  his  way),  and  some  clean  linen  and  bread ;  and  so 
we  were  all  fixed,  as  the  Yankees  say,  for  a  tramp.  Each  of  us 
carried,  besides  this,  a  chair,  and  a  very  handy  one  too,  though 
it  had  neither  legs  nor  back,  consisting,  in  fact,  only  in  a  piece 
of  sheep-skin  fastened  to  the  hind  part  of  the  belt,  and  hanging 
down  behind,  with  the  wool  inward,  nearly  to  the  back  part  of 
the  knee.  On  sitting  down  on  the  snow,  this  chair  was  of  course 
always  in  the  right  place. 

Leaving  our  hut  that  morning,  and  bending  round  a  projecting 
point  of  a  steep  spur,  which  came  down  one  of  the  dark  towering 
clefts  so  sharp  and  straight  that  no  snow  could  lie  upon  it,  we 
saw  the  upper  vale  of  these  gigantic  mountains  stretching  out 
before  us  far  to  the  west ;  and  there,  where  the  first  chain  of 
mountains  rose  again,  above  this,  lay  the  dividing  ridge  of  the 
two  oceans,  the  backbone  of  the  world. 

The  view  was  as  terrible  as  it  was  beautiful,  and  I  stopped  to 
look  up  a  minute  to  the  snowy  peaks  which  thronged  around  me, 
forming  one  vast  theatre  of  piled-up  mountains. 

My  two  peons — and  they  were  two  as  dirty  and  rough-looking 


96  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

fellows  as  ever  the  Pampas  had  bred — profited  by  this  rest,  and 
coming  down  with  their  hands  on  their  staffs,  till  their  backs, 
with  the  load  upon  it,  lay  nearly  horizontal ;  they  rested  in  this 
position  about  a  minute  or  two,  singing,  or  rather  mumbling,  a 
low,  monotonous  song  about  their  journey  arid  God's  help  to  it 
against  temporales  and  avalanches. 

Far  in  the  distance,  but  not  so  far  but  what  I  thought  we 
might  reach  it  about  twelve  o'clock,  we  saw  the  first  "  casucha  ;" 
but  traveling  along  as  quick  as  possible,  it  seemed  to  me,  after 
a  two  hours'  march,  as  if  we  had  not  advanced  two  hundred 
yards. 

Toward  mid-day  we  reached  a  snow-glide.  The  mountains 
here  are  too  steep  to  admit  of  an  avalanche  as  in  Switzerland, 
but  the  snow,  becoming  too  heavy  in  the  upper  regions,  presses 
down  on  the  lower  layers,  and  sometimes  the  whole  side  of  a 
mountain  is  cleared  by  a  snow-glide  in  a  few  minutes,  filling  the 
valley,  into  which  it  shoots,  for  miles  around  with  immense  masses 
of  snow.  We  had  to  clamber  about  for  more  then  two  hours  to 
clear  the  first  snow-glide  ;  sometimes  making  our  way  over  soft, 
sometimes  over  hard  snow,  and  such  tumbling  down  into  hollows, 
slipping,  and  gliding  backward  and  forward,  on  the  cold  slip- 
pery ground,  was  enough  to  tire  any  man,  let  him  be  as  familiar 
with  hardships  as  he  may. 

It  was  not  till  sun-down  that  we  reached  the  first  casucha. 
My  peons  were  quite  knocked  up,  and  they  had  to  rest  before 
they  could  set  about  preparing  any  supper. 

This  was  our  first  night  in  the  real  snow,  the  first  camp,  in 
the  very  midst  of  the  dangers  of  the  passage.  Should  the  weather 
only  keep  as  it  was  three  days  longer,  we  should  be  out  of  the 
reach  of  temporales,  and  I  could  laugh  at  the  perils  we  had  en- 
countered, as  well  as  all  the  dreadful  stories,  which  I  had  heard 
at  Rio  de  Janeiro,  at  Buenos  Ayres,  and  even  at  Mendoza.  A 
temper  ale,  however,  might  happen  at  any  moment ;  the  very 
next  morning  the  heavens  might  be  clouded,  and  that  is  the  only 
warning,  in  these  mountains  of  the  approach  of  a  storm. 

I  doubt  if  there  were  ever  in  all  the  world  a  couple  of  such 
dirty  nasty  cooks  as  my  two  peons.  As  long  as  I  knew  them 
and  enjoyed  their  company,  I  never  saw  them  wash  their  hands 
or  faces,  and  I  really  believe  their  mother  might  say  the  same  of 
them.  They  attempted  to  persuade  me  that  it  was  dangerous  to 


A  WINTER  PASSAGE  ACROSS  THE  CORDILLERAS.       97 

wash  one's  self,  coming  into  these  latitudes  ;  and  when  they  saw 
me  doing  this  hazardous  thing  with  snow,  as  water  was  not  to 
be  had,  they  left  the  casucha  in  utter  astonishment,  and  came 
out  to  look  and  laugh  at  me.  Afterward,  when  I  showed  that 
my  hands  had  not  cracked  from  the  use  of  the  snow-water,  as 
they  had  prophesied,  they  shrugged  their  shoulders,  and  said  I 
had  not  got  such  a  tender  and  soft  skin  as  they  had. 

If  I  had  not  gone  through  so  good  a  school  in  the  Pampas,  I 
should  never  have  heen  able  to  live  with  these  filthy  fellows  ; 
but  as  it  was,  I  took  things  coolly,  knowing,  moreover,  that  with 
the  mountains  I  should  get  over  this  disagreeableness. 

When  we  struck  camp,  the  peons  kindled  a  fire — and  a  very 
small  one  it  was — with  the  charcoal  which  we  had  brought  with 
us,  boiled  some  water  in  a  little  iron  pot,  and  commenced  the 
preparation  of  our  caldo,  or  soup.  One  chopped  up  some  charque, 
previously  well  punched  between  a  couple  of  stones  ;  the  other 
cut  up  some  onions  as  small  as  possible,  and  mixing  the  whole 
together  in  one  corner  of  a  poncho — which,  to  judge  from  its  ap- 
pearance, had  certainly  served  that  purpose  for  a  very  consider- 
able time — added  some  pepper  and  salt,  and  transferred  the  mix- 
ture to  .a  tolerably  large  cow-horn,  which  it  half  filled.  Over 
this  was  poured  hot  or  boiling  water,  when  the  soup  was  com- 
pleted, and  after  stirring  up  with  a  knife,  became  ready  for  use. 
It  was  always  presented,  in  a  kind  of  rough  politeness,  first  to  me, 
and  what  I  had  left,  the  peons  ate  themselves,  not  unfrequently 
preparing  a  second  one  in  addition — for  the  caldo  was  their  favor- 
ite dish. 

The  casuchas  of  the  mountains  are  simple  stone-huts,  built  by 
the  government  to  give  shelter  in  winter  to  the  correo,  or  to 
travelers,  principally  as  a  refuge  from  temporales.  They  are 
raised  from  twelve  to  sixteen  feet  from  the  ground,  to  prevent 
their  being  easily  covered  by  drift-snow  or  snow-glides,  and  they 
are  approached  by  a  rough  staircase,  which  leads  up  to  them. 
They  have,  of  course,  no  windows,  and  the  only  accommodation 
they  afford,  is  a  small  chimney  and  some  air  holes,  which  trav- 
elers, when  they  camp  there,  most  commonly  fill  up,  during  their 
stay,  with  snow,  and  open  again  when  they  leave. 

The  floor  of  these  casuchas  is  common  earth,  thrown  upon 
stones  similar  to  those  composing  the  walls,  and  the  ground  is, 
therefore,  cold  and  damp.  Still  they  are  a  great  accommoda- 

E 


98  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

tion  to  the  traveler,  and  have  saved  many  a  life,  which  but  for 
them  would  have  been  lost  in  the  snow. 

We  were  up  again  with  daybreak,  and  after  eating  our  caldo, 
made  an  early  start.  We  had  to  cross  on  that  forenoon  two  large 
snow-slips,  and  hard  work  it  was  to  climb  over  those  rough  and 
yielding  masses,  the  snow  becoming  deeper  and  deeper  as  we  ad- 
vanced. This  would  not  have  been  of  so  much  consequence,  if  the 
upper  crust  had  been  hard  enough  to  bear  us,  but  it  was  thin,  and 
the  soft  snow  was  below,  so  that  we  had  to  raise  our  legs  at  every 
step  as  high  as  if  we  were  climbing  a  staircase,  while  our  feet  no 
sooner  touched  the  ground  again,  than  they  broke  through  and 
sank  into  the  snow. 

My  companeros  had  told  me  in  the  morning  that  we  should 
reach  hot  water  in  the  course  of  the  day,  but  not  understanding 
what  they  meant,  I  took  no  farther  notice  of  it.  Just  after  cross- 
ing the  second  snow-slip,  however,  I  saw  rising  steam  in  the  dis- 
tance, and  we  reached  a  place  where  the  tops  of  some  bushes 
sticking  out  of  the  snow,  showed  a  more  luxuriant  vegetation 
than  farther  below.  A  tedious  walk  over  the  long  plain  of  soft 
snow,  brought  us  to  the  bank  of  a  stream,  still  the  Tucunjado, 
the  course  of  which  we  had  followed  before,  and  here  I  was  fully 
compensated  for  all  I  had  undergone,  in  the  really  wonderful 
sight  that  met  my  eye. 

Climbing  over  a  layer  of  congealed  snow,  hardened,  I  imagine, 
by  the  falling  steam  of  the  hot  spring,  I  saw  right  before  me  three 
jets  of  steaming  water — the  largest  one  several  inches  in  diame- 
ter— shooting  from  the  high,  steep  bank  of  the  little  stream, 
through  the  massive  unyielding  rock,  and  sending  the  steam  high 
up  into  the  clear  atmosphere. 

The  sight  was  most  beautiful :  the  steep  bank  and  the  boiling 
hot  water,  which  shot  hissing  out,  while  flakes  of  snow  lodged 
close  around  the  edge  of  it,  was  a  strange  spectacle  in  such  a 
region  of  frost. 

High  over  the  edge  of  the  bank  hung  an  immense  quantity 
of  snow,  like  a  monstrous  feather  bed,  just  ready  to  slip  down  by 
its  own  weight.  The  steam  kept  licking  the  lower  parts  of  the 
heap,  while  the  sharp  southwester,  which  blew  through  the 
dale,  hardened  the  crust  and  retained  the  snow  in  its  precarious 
position.  The  steam  itself  congealed  and  was  transformed  into 
icicles,  which  thus  served  to  prop  the  snow  like  so  many  columns, 


A  WINTER  PASSAGE  ACROSS  THE  CORDILLERAS.       99 

Out  of  this  self- formed  winter  palace  rose  the  steaming  vapor, 
and  the  warm  sun  shining  upon  it,  changed  it  into  myriads  of 
glowing  pearls,  tinged  with  the  most  radiant  and  beautiful  colors 
of  the  rainbow. 

I  could  with  difficulty  tear  myself  from  this  lovely  sight,  and 
should  have  liked  very  much  to  have  slid  down  to  the  hot  jet 
itself,  to  try  its  temperature,  but  this  was  impossible.  The  steep 
bank  and  the  overhanging  masses  of  ice  and  snow  did  not  allow 
of  my  getting  nearer  than  I  was,  unless  I  had  spent  many  hours 
cutting  a  path,  and  it  was  too  dangerous  to  risk  a  long  stay  in 
such  a  region  except  from  necessity. 

In  summer,  the  peons  told  me,  visitors  come  to  this  spot  from 
the  Chilean  side ;  and  then,  indeed,  a  residence  between  those 
picturesque  mountain-peaks,  in  the  very  heart  of  the  Cordilleras, 
must  be  charming. 

Leaving  the  hot  spring,  we  climbed  another  snow-glide,  which 
must  have  come  down  very  recently,  and  which  took  us  several 
hours  to  cross.  We  then  came  to  a  more  open  part  of  the  valley, 
and  found  harder  snow — a  great  advantage  in  walking.  Step- 
ping  along  here  at  a  brisk  pace  I  startled  a  fox,  and  found  a 
large  number  of  the  tracks  of  these  animals  coming  out  from  a 
kind  of  hollow.  Sportsmen  are  the  most  cruel  beings  on  the  face 
of  this  earth.  A  fox  will  not  kill  any  thing,  except  for  its  own 
use  ;  but  though  the  one  I  had  started  could  be  of  no  use  to  me, 
and  could  do  no  harm  to  any  one,  no  sooner  did  I  see  it  than  my 
first  thought  was  murder,  and  I  waited  with  mischievous  joy,  till 
it  should  come  within  shot. 

My  two  companions,  who  seemed  to  feel  interested  in  the  sport, 
remained  stationary,  and  Master  Reynard  came  as  carelessly  up 
the  slope  as  if  he  were  only  out  for  a  quiet  walk,  when,  judging 
the  distance  at  about  a  hundred  yards,  just  as  he  got  the  scent 
of  us,  but  appeared  to  be  uncertain  as  to  the  danger,  I  took  a 
good  and  sure  aim,  and  pulled  the  trigger.  The  gun  went  off, 
but  to  my  utter  astonishment  the  ball — one  of  the  pointed  slug- 
balls — struck  the  snow,  as  I  plainly  saw  some  paces  short  of  the 
fox  ;  and  Reynard,  discovering  that  all  was  not  right,  scampered 
off,  leaving  me  to  fire  again  with  as  little  effect  as  before. 
Having  no  idea  what  could  be  the  matter  with  the  gun,  I  went 
to  the  place  where  the  fox  had  stood,  and  counting  the  steps  in 
going,  -was  surprised  to  find  that  what  I  had  thought  about  a 


100  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

hundred  yards,  was  really  two  hundred  and  sixty !  so  deceptive 
was  the  pure  and  transparent  snow  as  to  distance. 

Indeed,  on  looking  back,  I  saw  that  the  spur  of  the  mountain 
behind,  on  which  lay  the  Punta  del  Vaoa,  appeared  to  be  not 
farther  off  than  two  or  three  miles,  though  I  knew  the  distance 
to  be  much  greater.  Then  I  reflected  that  if  the  sight  was  mis- 
led in  such  a  way  by  the  thin  air,  in  judging  the  distance  of  ob- 
jects so  close,  what  an  enormous  space  must  lie  between  the 
mountain-ridges,  which  really  looked  so  far  apart,  and  to  what  a 
height  the  mighty  peaks  must  rise,  when  they  were  so  gigantic 
even  in  appearance. 

This  also  explained  to  me  another  fact,  which  hitherto  I  had 
not  been  able  to  comprehend.  I  had  crossed,  as  I  have  already 
mentioned,  several  snow-glides  which  had  shot  down  from  the 
nearest  sides  of  the  rock,  and  covered  distances  which  I  now 
knew  must  be  long,  long  miles,  while  the  place  on  the  rocks 
from  which  the  snow  had  fallen  had  seemed  in  comparison  only 
a  few  hundred  yards  in  extent ;  but  the  illusion  in  this  case  was 
clear,  and  I  now  felt  indeed,  the  immense  greatness  of  these 
mountains. 

That  evening  we  walked  till  nearly  dark  before  we  came  in 
sight  of  the  next  casucha,  where  we  intended  to  camp,  a  project- 
ing rock  having  screened  it  from  view ;  but  turning  round  this, 
we  saw  the  little  place  before  us,  and  to  our  great  joy  a  bright 
fire  blazing  out  of  the  dark  door- way.  There  was  company  then 
— human  beings  in  the  snow  besides  ourselves,  and  we  should 
this  night  see  other  faces,  hear  other  voices  !  We  stepped  out  as 
fast  as  we  could,  and  reaching  the  place  just  with  dark,  found 
within  the  Chilean  correo,  who  having  profited  by  the  fair 
weather,  was  on  his  way  to  Mendoza. 

The  first  questions,  from  both  sides,  was,  of  course,  after  the 
road — how  the  snow  was,  whether  hard  or  soft,  and  how  many 
snow-glides  were  to  be  encountered.  The  answers  were  satis- 
factory, though  principally  for  us,  as  we  had  only  one  bad  place 
to  pass,  and  if  the  good  weather  lasted,  should  find  on  the  edge 
of  the  snow,  on  the  Chilean  side,  a  drove  of  mules,  the  drivers  of 
which  had  intended  to  attempt  crossing  over  with  their  animals 
as  an  experiment ;  but  having  sent  out  some  persons  to  examine 
the  mountains,  and  their  reports  being  unsatisfactory,  they  pro- 
posed to  turn  back  and  wait  for  better  weather.  If  we  pushed 


A  WINTER  PASSAGE  ACROSS  THE  CORDTLllEBAS.     *l£l 

on,  therefore,  we  might  yet  find  them  in  one  of  the  Chilean 
casuchas. 

The  correo  congratulated  us  on  having  met  with  such  fine 
weather,  and  told  us  that  he  had  been  locked  up  during  this  very 
winter  in  the  last  casucha  we  had  passed,  a  dreadful  temporale 
howling  through  the  valleys,  and  filling  them  with  snow,  till 
they  had  eaten  nearly  all  their  provisions.  In  perfect  despair 
they  at  length  broke  out  from  the  cold  walls,  which  had  pro- 
tected their  lives  several  weeks,  as  soon  as  the  storm  had  ex- 
pended the  greater  part  of  its  fury,  to  reach  the  lower  region  ; 
and  it  was  fortunate  for  them  they  did  so,  for  the  storm  seemed 
only  to  have  paused  a  little  while,  and  they  had  hardly  passed 
the  Purita  del  Vaca,  and  left  the  snow  behind  them,  when  a  new 
tornado  commenced,  driving  the  snow  even  down  to  where  they 
fled,  and  sometimes  upon  their  path.  "  And  here  we  are,"  the 
old  fellow  continued,  "  right  in  the  very  middle  of  it ;  if  we  get 
one  of  those  cap-fulls  now  we  should  be  in  a  scrape." 

But  the  weather  remained  fine,  the  gnomes  of  the  mountains 
were  friendly  to  us,  and  the  next  day,  the  18th  of  July,  we 
reached  and  crossed  the  dividing  ridge  between  two  oceans — the 
highest  pass  of  the  Cordilleras — though  it  was  a  tedious  job  to 
climb  up  those  steep,  snow-covered  banks,  a  portion  of  which  the 
sun  had  also  commenced  thawing,  softening  the  snow,  and 
making  the  ground  slippery  and  unsafe  under  foot. 

But  there  was  one  powerful  consolation  for  all  these  hardships, 
let  them  be  as  disagreeable  as  ever  they  might — this  was  the 
last  height ;  once  over  this  ridge,  and  the  worst  was  passed,  each 
step  bringing  us  nearer  to  the  lofty  object  we  wished  to  obtain. 
At  length  I  almost  reached  the  summit,  climbing  with  all  the 
strength  left  me,  and  was  going  to  sink  in  exhaustion,  but  should 
I  rest  once  more  when  so  near  the  point  I  had  aimed  at  reaching 
the  whole  morning  ?  No ;  setting  my  teeth,  I  rushed  up,  and 
the  next  minute  stood  with  a  feeling  it  would  be  impossible  to 
describe,  upon  the  backbone  of  a  world.  No  mountain-ridge  any 
longer  obscured  my  gaze,  and  the  eye  saw  more  than  it  was  able 
to  comprehend.  Far,  far  over  there,  the  dim  and  misty  horizon 
— the  dark  mass  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  while  close  to  our  left, 
growing  as  it  were  from  the  very  ridge  upon  which  I  was  stand- 
ing, the  Tupungato,  the  highest  peak  of  the  Chilean  Cordilleras, 
rose  up  between  five  and  six  thousand  feet  above  us.  The  pass 


.10^  ."JOUSJHEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

where  we  crossed  is  said  to  be  thirteen  thousand  feet  high,  while 
the  Tupungato  reaches  eighteen  thousand  feet  above  the  surface 
of  the  ocean. 

I  wrapped  my  woolen  blanket  around  me,  for  the  wind  blew 
sharply  and  coldly  from  the  southwest,  and  throwing  myself  upon 
one  of  the  mighty  rocks,  which  have  been  softened  by  the  storms 
of  ages,  and  were  now  crumbling  beneath  the  hand  of  time,  my 
eye  remained  fixed  a  long,  long  while — not  on  the  picturesque 
mountains  of  Chili,  not  upon  the  beautiful  panorama  of  all  those 
peaks  and  ridges  that  rose  around  me  and  seemed  a  wild  ocean 
of  gigantic  waves,  with  their  sharp  outline  thrown  out  by  the 
misty  atmosphere  behind — no,  but  on  those  vast  plains  in  the  far 
east,  whose  boundaries  were  my  own  Atlantic  Ocean ;  for  there, 
far,  far  away  I  had  left  my  home,  and  how  or  when  should  I 
behold  again  all  that  I  had  left  there  ? 

When  I  looked  up  again  a  large  and  powerful  condor,  the 
giant  vulture  of  these  massive  heights,  was  soaring  nearly  within 
a  stone's  throw  right  above  me,  striking  the  air  with  its  colossal 
wings,  as  if  it  belonged  to  the  grandeur  of  the  scene,  but  finding 
that  the  figure  below  it  possessed  life  and  action,  it  turned  its 
head,  slowly  sweeping  away  toward  the  sinking  sun.  I  could 
have  easily  reached  it  with  a  bullet,  but  I  should  have  thought 
it  murder  to  shoot  the  bird  at  that  moment. 

But  the  sinking  sun  reminded  me  also  of  a  night's  shelter ; 
my  peons  had  passed  me  long  before,  scrambling  down  the  steep 
snowy  heights  on  the  other  side,  and  the  next  casucha  lay  yet 
in  purple  gloom  far  down  between  the  rugged  snow-peaks,  which 
looked  up  to  me  menacingly  from  below — and  what  would  I  not 
have  given  to  stay  another  hour  on  this  spot ;  but  there  was  no 
joking  with  this  very  height,  and  afterward  I  heard  that  we  had 
hit  on  the  most  fortunate  moment  to  cross  it,  for  nearly  always 
a  perfect  gale  howls  here  over  the  ridge,  and,  in  fact,  the  highest 
part  of  the  mountain  was  swept  as  clean  of  snow  as  storm  and 
hurricane  could  do  it — old  Boreas  keeps  his  drawing-room  in 
first-rate  order. 

Now,  then,  to  begin  my  descent !  and  any  one  who  ever  went 
down  a  steep  hill  after  a  tedious  day's  march,  will  be  able  to 
judge  what  I  felt,  at  gliding  and  slipping  down  the  Cordilleras, 
after  having,  without  more  than  about  half-an-hour's  rest,  toiled 
up  to  their  summits  the  whole  day.  I  had,  however,  strained 


A  WINTER  PASSAGE  ACROSS  THE  CORDILLEEAS.      103 

my  nerves  too  much  during  the  few  last  days,  and  hardly  after 
an  hour's  march  such  a  peculiar  kind  of  sickness  overcame  me 
that  I  had  to  throw  myself  down  upon  the  ground  several  times 
to  rest  and  gain  some  strength,  cooling  my  lips  at  the  same  time 
with  handfuls  of  snow.  At  such  moments  my  head  swam,  and 
I  felt  sick ;  but  there  was  no  help  for  it,  I  had  to  go  on,  for  I 
could  not  stop  in  the  snow,  and  I  scrambled  up  again  after  such 
attacks,  to  continue  my  journey  with  fresh  vigor. 

This  hill  was  tremendously  steep,  the  whole  descent  being  a 
succession  of  uninterrupted  leaps  from  rocks  about  three  and  four 
feet  high,  or  gliding  down  ravines  sometimes  fifty  or  a  hundred 
feet  long.  We  did  not  reach  the  first  casucha  till  dark  ;  but 
what  a  dreadful  place  to  stop  in  !  The  snow  reached  up  to  the 
very  entrance  of  the  little  low  hut,  which  was  inside  as  dirty  as 
men  and  beasts  during  a  number  of  years  could  have  made  it ; 
and  to  increase  the  beauties  of  the  place,  a  mule  brought  up  here 
by  the  very  muleteers,  I  believe,  who  had  been  examining  the 
path  to  see  if  they  could  cross  the  mountains  with  their  animals, 
had  died  right  before  the  door  of  the  casucha — you  had  to  step 
over  it  if  you  wanted  to  enter  the  low  and  dark  room — and  the 
powerful  beak  of  some  condor  had  been  tearing  at  it,  as  long  as 
it  had  been  warm,  I  expect,  for  now  even  a  sledge-hammer 
would  have  made  very  little  impression  upon  it.  And  we  must 
stay  all  night  here? — could  this  be  a  habitation  for  human 
beings  ?  But  there  was  no  choice  left ;  the  next  casucha  was  a 
whole  legua  farther,  and  how  would  we  have  been  able  to  pick 
our  road  along  the  dangerous  cliffs  and  down  steep  banks,  over 
the  dazzling  snow  in  the  dark  ?  No,  we  were  forced  to  stop  in 
the  disgusting  place ;  my  only  consolation  being  now  a  cup  of 
hot  tea,  or  even  a  hornful  of  caldo  ;  I  really  did  not  care  which, 
so  I  threw  my  blankets  and  things  into  the  corner  that  looked 
least  dirty,  though  I  hardly  believe  a  horse  would  have  lain  down 
in  such  a  spot,  and  called  the  peons  to  kindle  a  fire. 

But  even  this  comfort  was  not  afforded  me  :  the  rascals,  that 
they  might  not  be  obliged  to  carry  the  coals  over  the  steep  mount- 
ain ridge,  had  burnt  every  particle  the  previous  night,  and  we 
were  now  in  the  midst  of  snow  without  being  able  to  kindle  the 
least  fire  even  to  boil  some  water — nothing  but  the  cold,  dirty, 
stone-walls,  and  the  dead  mule  lying  before  the  door.  There 
was  a  comfortable  home  for  a  man  ;  but  what  good  would 


1:04  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

grumbling  do  ?  so  with  a  hearty  curse  upon  the  lazy  fellows, 
who  were  chewing  in  perfect  self-contentment  some  of  the  stone- 
hard  charque.  I  swallowed  a  mouthful  of  it  myself,  took  a  dram 
out  of  a  little  bottle  the  Italian  apothecary  in  Mendoza  had 
filled  for  me  with  some  excellent  bitters,  rolled  myself  up  in  my 
blanket  and  poncho  and  threw  myself  on  the  cold  and  damp 
ground. 

Next  morning  I  was  up  long  before  daylight.  There  was  one 
comfort  in  our  situation,  that  we  had  not  to  wait  in  this  dread- 
ful hole  for  breakfast ;  so  up  I  jumped,  fastened  the  sheep-skin 
again  over  my  boots,  rolled  up  my  blanket  and  threw  it  over  my 
shoulders,  and  wrapping  the  poncho  around  me,  and  stepping 
over  the  carcass  of  the  mule,  I  drew  a  deep  breath,  for  the  cold 
but  pure  morning  air  fanned  my  face,  and  my  feet  rested  on  the 
clean  snow — what  a  contrast  with  the  hole  I  had  just  left. 

But  when  I  came  out  into  the  mountains  this  morning  upon 
the  path  we  had  to  follow  down  the  gulches  and  steeps,  I  saw 
how  dangerous,  even  impossible,  it  would  have  been  for  us  to 
travel  last  night  in  the  dark,  when  we  came  to  places  we  could 
hardly  cross  in  broad  daylight.  The  mountain-slopes  were  all 
steep  and  precipitous,  covered,  of  course,  with  many  feet  of  snow 
and  crusted  by  the  cold  southwester,  which  blew  with  bitter 
sharpness  through  the  narrow  chasms,  with  a  thin  sheet  of  ice, 
over  which  a  fine  snow-dust  like  a  thin,  icy  mist  was  drifting,  in 
low  transparent  clouds.  "We  had  to  travel  along  these  cliffs  and 
slopes,  and  one  place  in  particular  really  seemed  as  if  impossible 
to  cross.  It  was  the  steep  slope  of  a  real  mountain,  for  mount- 
ain high  it  rose  to  our  left,  while  it  went  at  an  angle  of  about 
sixty  degrees  far,  far  down  to  a  bluish,  dark  chasm.  If  the  foot 
slipped  here,  all  escape  was  out  of  the  question,  for  smooth  as  a 
mirror,  without  the  least  bush,  or  shrub,  or  even  elevation,  it 
sloped  down  to  the  deep  valley,  where  most  certainly  hundreds 
of  feet  of  drifted  snow  would  have  buried  the  unhapy  traveler  for 
ever. 

It  was  also  impossible  to  go  round  this  place — we  had  to  face 
it ;  and  my  peons  told  me  the  old  correo  had  passed  it  also,  though 
perhaps  a  little  higher  up  or  farther  below,  which  did  not  make 
the  least  difference ;  so  I  had  to  take  out  my  large  bowie-knife, 
and  going  before,  cut  or  hack  with  it  small  holes  in  the  snow,  or 
rather  ice,  to  put  our  feet  in.  The  peons  followed  slowly  and 


A  WINTER  PASSAGE  ACROSS  THE  CORDILLERAS.      105 

carefully,  setting  their  feet  with  great  attention  exactly  in  my 
tracks ;  and  so  we  had  to  advance  at  least  a  quarter  of  a  mile. 
The  bank  was  so  steep,  at  the  same  time,  that  when  standing 
upright  we  could  touch  the  snow  with  our  outstretched  hands, 
each  step  endangering  life  and  limbs,  but  also  diminishing  the 
danger ;  and  after  we  had  passed  this  place,  the  worst  was  over. 
We  came  to  some  other  such  slopes,  equally  steep  and  dangerous 
perhaps,  but  not  so  long;  and  reaching  the  mountain-stream 
again  after  about  three  hours'  march,  we  had,  at  least  for  a  while, 
no  more  cliffs  and  chasms  to  threaten  us  with  destruction  at  the 
first  false  step. 

With  the  first  water  we  also  reached  a  casucha,  these  being 
on  the  Chilian  side  only  one  legua  apart,  while  the  distance  be- 
tween them  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Cordilleras  was  sometimes 
nearly  three  leguas.  The  small  springs,  of  which  we  had  crossed 
and  followed  several  that  day,  collected  here  again  into  a  larger 
mountain-stream,  the  Puente.  Farther  and  farther  we  followed 
it  down  into  the  deeper  valley,  which  widened  here,  and,  in  fact, 
already  displayed  some  places  free  from  snow ;  and  which  brought 
us,  some  time  in  the  afternoon,  to  the  next  casucha,  and  with  it 
to  a  hard  and  rocky  path,  upon  which  a  small  troop  of  mules 
was  camping.  From  here,  as  I  soon  learned,  the  road  was  passa- 
ble for  mules,  though  with  some  disagreeable  places  ;  and  glad 
enough  to  find  the  mules  were  returning  that  same  evening  to 
the  low  lands,  because  they  had  tried  to  pass,  but  found  it  impos- 
sible, I  made  a  bargain  with  the  leader  of  the  troop  to  take  me 
and  my  things  to  Santa  Rosa,  the  first  little  place  in  the  valley, 
where  I  had  to  get  horses  again  from  my  old  vaquiano's  father. 
But  here  we  rested  first — here  all  the  threatened  dangers  of  the 
Cordilleras,  of  snow-drifts  and  temporales,  were  past ;  Pampas 
and  snow-locked  mountains  lay  behind  me ;  and  with  the  most 
pleasant  feeling  in  the  world,  I  threw  myself  here  for  the  first 
time  again,  except  on  the  very  top  of  the  mountains,  upon  the 
bare  and  naked  ground,  on  which  only  a  few  blades  of  wiry  grass 
grew ;  a  hot  cup  of  coffee  being  a  kind  of  recompense  for  past 
sorrows  and  hardships. 

Down,  down  we  went  from  here,  following  the  course  of  the 
Puente,  which  had  become  a  large  and  wild  mountain-stream — 
and  I  had  known  it  as  a  child — took  a  slight  rest  toward  even- 
ing close  to  the  first  hut  we  reached,  where  a  Chilean  had 

E* 


106  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

made  his  home  in  one  of  the  wildest,  but  at  the  same  time  most 
picturesque  mountain-gulches,  and  started  just  before  dark  again  ; 
for  my  compagneros  wanted  to  get  to  a  good  grassy  place  again, 
and  have  some  food  for  their  nearly-starved  mules. 

Here  I  tasted,  for  the  first  time,  a  genuine  Chilean  dinner, 
consisting  of  a  rather  primitive  mush.  Some  coarse  but  very 
sweet  wheat-flour  was  put  into  a  horn,  that  was  scraped  and 
kept  clean,  water  poured  over  it,  and  the  mixture  stirred  up  with 
a  little  stick — and  it  was  even  a  luxury  to  have  little  sticks — 
into  a  thin  drinkable  mush.  I  looked  at  the  beverage  or  nour- 
ishment, which  ever  I  might  call  it,  at  first  rather  suspiciously ; 
but  either  my  taste  had  been  spoiled  in  the  mountains,  or  else  it 
was  really  good,  it  seemed  most  excellent  to  me,  and  I  emptied 
a  whole  horn.  An  excellent  onion,  which  grows  in  Chili,  with 
some  red  pepper,  completed  my  meal ;  and  after  dinner  I  was 
able  to  ]ie  down  again  under  a  tree  were  it  ever  so  small,  and 
upon  the  grass,  were  it  ever  so  thin ;  it  was  tree  and  grass,  and 
there  was  a  sweet  sound  even  in  the  name  of  the  things. 

When  we  started  again,  however,  our  dangers  or  hardships 
were  not  all  passed — in  fact,  we  had  not  even  left  the  snow — for 
we  had  to  cross  several  large  masses,  which  not  only  caused  our 
passage  to  be  very  tedious,  but  also  showed  that  we  might  yet  be 
overwhelmed  by  avalanches  ;  but  this  was  nothing,  on  we  went — 
even  the  last  ravine  now  lay  behind  us — and  following  a  narrow 
and  steep  path  in  perfect  darkness,  where  the  Puente  foamed,  as 
it  seemed,  beneath  the  feet  of  our  mules ;  and  though  a  single 
false  step  would  have  hurled  me  down,  a  lifeless  corpse,  upon  the 
sharp  rocks  of  the  valley,  I  felt  so  secure  that  I  even  slept  in  the 
saddle. 

In  the  night  we  stopped  at  some  place — I  do  not  know  where, 
and  in  fact  cared  less  ;  it  was  pitch  dark — and  without  inquiring 
if  there  was  a  house  or  habitation  in  the  neighborhood,  I  slipped 
down  from  the  saddle,  wrapped  myself  up  in  my  blanket,  and 
slept  on  the  very  spot  my  foot  had  touched  on  leaving  the  stir- 
rup. Next  morning,  up  with  daylight  again  :  it  was  raw  morn- 
ing. When  I  awoke,  the  mule,  ready  saddled,  was  brought  up 
to  me.  I  got  up — from  the  mule  upon  the  ground,  from  the 
ground  upon  the  mule.  It  was  a  miserable  life  ;  but  every  min- 
ute I  drew  nearer  my  place  of  destination,  and  ought  not  to  grum- 
ble. The  wind  came  up  freezingly  through  the  mountain-gulch. 


A  WINTER  PASSAGE  ACROSS  THE  CORDILLERAS.       107 

I  drew  my  poncho  close  around  me,  and  thought  of  the  last  night's 
dream — a  dream  of  home,  of  wife  and  child  ;  and  the  rougher, 
the  more  unfriendly  the  outer  world  appeared  to  me,  the  more  I 
gave  myself  up  to  the  sweet  thought. 

The  morning  was  raw  and  cold  ;  a  damp  mist  was  spread 
over  the  valley,  hardly  allowing  us  to  distinguish  the  path  upon 
which  we  traveled  for  ten  or  fifteen  paces  ahead.  Farther  and 
farther  down  into  the  valley  we  rode  ;  and  with  half-closed  eye- 
lids, I  sate  in  my  saddle  with  only  sufficient  consciousness  of  the 
present  to  keep  my  balance  in  the  stirrups. 

Dogs  barked — I  thought  I  heard  the  merry  laugh  of  children's 
voices  ;  I  looked  up,  and  grasping  the  reins  of  my  mule,  I  really 
did  not  know  the  first  moment  if  I  was  awake  or  still  dreaming. 
Had  I  really  come  from  out  the  iron  frost  only  yesterday,  at 
times  up  to  the  waist  in  snow,  or  climbing  over  icy  heights, 
where  neither  tree  nor  shrub  broke  the  monotonous  solitude  of 
snow  and  towering  rock — and  now  ? 

Right  before  me  I  saw  a  peaceful  cleanly  cabin,  nearly  hidden 
in  the  friendly  shade  of  thick  green  bushes.  Close  to  the  hut  a 
perfect  thicket  of  dark-leafed  orange-trees,  with  their  golden  fruit 
peeping  every  where  out ;  rose  trees  covered  with  budding 
flowers  ;  peach-trees  loaded  with  their  soft  sweet  blossoms ;  and 
wherever  the  astonished  eye  turned,  blooming  bushes  and  shrubs, 
and  the  sweet  verdure  of  the  fertile  slopes  and  valleys.  Every 
thing  had  changed — as  if  the  wand  of  a  magician  had  struck 
the  ground,  and  melted  winter's  icy  power  into  blossom  and  wav- 
ing fruit-laden  branches.  As  if  I  myself  had  gained  new  power 
and  life,  I  felt  the  warm  spring-time  gushing  through  my  veins ; 
and  shaking  off  every  thought  of  exhaustion  or  weakness,  I  dug 
my  spurs  into  my  rather  astonished  mule,  and  galloped,  with  joy 
and  pleasure  thrilling  in  rny  heart,  on  through  the  valley. 

Chili  had  opened  her  hospitable  arms  to  receive  as — every 
inch  of  soil  seemed  cultivated — the  numerous  mule  droves  we 
met  gave  evidence  of  the  busy  communication  in  these  parts. 
Every  where  oranges  and  blooming  peach  and  apple-trees,  in 
whose  shade  nice  and  cleanly  houses  lay,  greeted  our  sight ;  the 
fields  and  gardens  were  surrounded  by  trimly-kept  hedges  or 
stone  fences,  and  the  springs  and  water-streams  led  to  give 
moisture  to  the  more  arid  districts,  revealed  the  industry  of  an 
agricultural  people.  Every  step  showed  more  and  more  that  wo 


108  JOURNEY  BOUND  THE  WORLD, 

had  left  that  country  where  death  and  signs  of  blood  met  the 
sight  wherever  the  weary  eye  turned,  and  where  animal  nourish- 
ment made  man  the  blood-thirsty  being  he  showed  himself, 
while  here  milder  habits  and  milder  food  softened  even  the 
nature  of  the  inhabitants,  and  spread  peace  and  blessing 
around. 

At  mid-day  we  reached  Santa  Rosa,  where  I  was  to  get  fresh 
horses.  Here  also  the  last  peon,  whom  I  had  taken  with  me, 
left  me  in  charge  of  my  old  guide's  brother,  who  went  with 
me  to  Valparaiso  to  receive  there  the  stipulated  five  ounces,  after 
delivering  me  in  good  condition  at  the  Puerto. 

On  the  same  evening,  and  now  on  the  backs  of  two  lively 
horses,  we  passed  the  friendly  little  town  of  San  Felipe,  with  its 
broad  regular  streets,  low-roofed  houses,  and  inclosed  gardens,  its 
flowery  hedges  and  fruit  loaded  orange- groves.  Even  before  the 
magistrate's  house  stood  two  beautiful  palms,  the  first — and,  in 
fact,  the  only  ones — I  saw  in  Chili,  which  endowed  the  whole 
scenery  with  a  warm  tropical  character ;  the  natives  themselves 
had  something  peculiar  to  distinguish  them  from  those  of  the 
neighbor  republic.  They  also  wore  the  poncho  but  much  short- 
er and  of  course  not  of  the  same  bright  red  colors  ;  they  also  gal- 
loped their  horses,  but  not  at  such  a  break-neck  speed  as  the  Ar- 
gentines always  do,  not  caring  a  straw  if  the  horse  breaks  down 
as  soon  as  it  reaches  the  spot  the  rider  wants  to  go  to.  The 
Chilean  farmer  not  unfrequently  even  trots,  a  thing  I  only  saw 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Cordilleras  in  Buenos  Ay  res  itself,  where 
horsemen  were  not  allowed  to  gallop. 

Riding  appointments  also — saddle,  spur  and  bridle,  but  espe- 
cially stirrup — are  very  different  from  the  Argentine.  The 
gaucho  of  the  Pampas  uses  the  smallest  stirrup  imaginable,  and 
very  frequently  none  at  all,  having  only  a  small  piece  of  wood  or 
bone  tied  to  the  stirrup-leather,  passing  between  his  two  largest 
toes,  which  rest  upon  a  kind  of  knot  or  knob  of  the  same  charac- 
ter ;  but  the  Chilean  stirrup,  on  the  contrary,  looks  in  compari- 
son to  the  other  like  the  box  of  a  wagon- wheel — round,  clumsy, 
and  cut  out  of  a  single  piece  of  wood  with  only  a  hollow  to  put 
the  foot  in.  The  spurs  of  the  Chileans  are  something  like  the 
Argentine  in  weight  and  shape,  but  the  wheel  is  about  three 
and  a  half  to  four  inches  in  diameter,  and  guarded  with  spikes 
close  together,  like  the  beams  of  a  painted  sun  ;  while  the  Argen- 


A  WINTER  PASSAGE  ACROSS  THE  CORDILLERAS.      109 

tine  spurs,  with  only  six  single  thorns  or  points,  act  like  so  many 
knives  upon  the  sides  of  the  poor  horses.  The  Chilean  saddle  is 
also  covered  sometimes  with  six  or  eight  sheep-skins,  affording  the 
rider,  with  the  high  back  and  pommel,  a  tolerably  secure  but 
rather  clumsy  seat. 

We  overtook  a  great  many  caravans  to-day,  which  looked  pe- 
culiar enough  with  their  singular  riding-gear,  and  the  riders  and 
even  loads,  for  many  of  them  were  taking  wine  to  town  in 
leather  bags,  prepared  out  of  the  hide  of  some  animals,  I  think 
principally  goats. 

That  night  we  staid  in  one  of  the  little  Chilean  huts,  but  I 
found  them  far  different  from  the  Argentine  hovels  :  though  very 
poor  there  was  a  great  deal  more  comfort  in  them,  and  no  com- 
parison in  cleanliness ;  they  had  immeasurably  the  advantage 
over  all  their  eastern  neighbors,  very  few  excepted.  Next  morn- 
ing at  daylight  we  were  up  again  ;  a  singular  impatience  possess- 
ed me,  a  kind  of  foreboding  that  I  should  miss  my  ship  if  I  did 
not  hurry  on.  The  whole  day  we  passed,  sometimes  through 
welLcultivated  land  and  on  approaching  again,  the  little  mount- 
ain-stream which  had  formed  this  valley,  entered  a  perfect  wil- 
derness of  pebbles.  They  were  sometimes  of  two  and  three  hun- 
dred pounds  weight,  which  the  mad  current  had  rolled  down 
with  it,  and  on  flooding  the  bottoms  threw  the  rocky  seed  all 
over  the  land,  many  a  mile  wide.  These  waters  must  have  a 
dreadful  force  when  they  bring  the  melting  snow  down  from  the 
mountains,  sweeping  along  with  them  every  thing  that  meets 
them  in  their  wild  and  reckless  career. 

The  country  itself  was  by  no  means  such  as  I  had  expected  to 
find  here  ;  with  the  exception  of  some  cactus,  I  saw  hardly  any 
vegetation,  except  in  the  valleys,  the  hills  being  undulating  and 
naked,  like  the  giant  waves  of  seme  old  petrified  ocean,  and 
overgrown  with  a  thin  crop  of  grass.  Every  hill  we  reached  I 
hoped  to  get  in  sight  of  the  Pacific,  and  every  hill  only  showed 
the  reflection  of  exactly  such  an  one  as  we  had  just  scaled. 

We  passed  through  a  nice  little  town  about  mid-day,  Guil- 
lota,  with  fertile  fields  and  gardens,  and,  as  I  every  where 
saw,  an  industrious  population.  But  it  became  dark,  and  we 
had  not  yet  seen  Valparaiso  nor  the  signs  of  a  larger  town  even, 
and  we  crossed  hill  after  hill,  our  horses  being  dead  beat  at  last, 
and  mine  hardly  able  to  move.  My  guide  was  going  to  stop  all 


110  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

night  at  every  hut  we  came  to — he  told  me  the  horses  could  go 
no  farther — but  I  had  no  rest ;  if  he  stopped,  I  told  him  I  should 
go  on  foot,  but  Valparaiso  I  would  reach  that  night.  And  on  we 
traveled  again,  leading  the  horses  up  hill  for  their,  and  down 
hill,  for  our  accommodation.  Now  we  saw  a  bright  light  right 
before  us,  like  a  meteor — what  was  that  ? — the  light  house  of  El 
Puerto  my  companero  said,  so  we  had  at  last  reached  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  sea  ;  but  the  sea  itself  was  invisible,  the  darkness 
could  have  been  cut  with  a  knife. 

Next  we  came,  as  we  saw  sometimes  when  we  ran  right 
against  them,  to  some  shrubs  and  thickets  the  road  wound 
through — and  how  the  horses  kept  the  road,  I  do  not  know ;  the 
path  also  turned  downward,  some  lights  were  visible,  and  we 
had  to  cross  now ;  and  we  must  be  near  the  shore,  for  I  could 
plainly  hear  the  breakers — the  sandy  bed  of  a  deep  water-course, 
very  probably  the  same  stream  I  had  followed  from  the  top  of 
the  Cordilleras.  Down  our  horses  went  into  the  water — I  do 
not  know  how  deep,  in  fact  I  did  not  care,  I  was  perfectly  worn 
out,  and  only  recollect  I  held  up  my  gun  over  my  head,  to  keep 
that  dry.  On — on,  I  thought,  we  should  never  reach  Valparaiso, 
my  horse  could  no  longer  carry  me,  crossing  the  water  had  done 
for  it,  and  wet  as  I  was,  I  had  to  lead  it.  At  last,  we  reached 
the  outskirts  of  the  port ;  it  was  past  nine  o'clock,  the  people 
had  shut  their  houses,  and  gone  to  bed,  and  a  darkness  enfolded 
us,  such  as  I  had  never  seen  before. 

And  what  could  I  have  done  to-night  with  my  vessel  ?  Nothing 
at  all.  But  the  "  Talisman"  could  not  leave  the  harbor  now,  at 
least,  till  to-morrow  morning,  and  with  daybreak  I  was  sure  to 
be  on  the  landing.  So  I  let  my  guide  go  ahead,  and  choose  a 
house  for  us  to  stay  in  all  night — what  did  I  care  about  the  place 
if  I  could  only  lie  down  and  go  to  sleep  ?  I  was  tired  to  death. 


CHAPTER  X. 

VALPARAISO    AND    CHILI. 

Do  not  ask  me  for  a  description  of  that  night !  It  was  the 
conclusion  of  all  my  hardships  in  Chili,  it  is  true,  but  also  as  dis- 
gusting as  any  I  had  yet  passed.  However,  I  shall  never  forget 
"  Donna  Beatriz,"  as  she  was  called,  pulling  out  of  some  corner 
an  old  frying-pan,  that  had  rested  there,  I  will  not  even  guess 
how  long.  She  was  going  to  fry  some  eggs,  and  discovering  in  it 
an  old  layer  of  grease,  slapped  the  pan  without  much  ado  upon 
the  fire,  and  put  the  eggs  on  top  of  the  dissolving  fat.  I  saw  all 
this  in  a  half  dream,  in  a  kind  of  stupor,  and  acted  accordingly. 

On  inquiring  here  about  the  vessels  in  the  harbor,  none  of  the 
Chileans  could  give  me  any  satisfactory  answer  ;  but  at  daybreak 
next  morning — and  I  slept  during  the  night  in  some  corner  upon 
an  old  mat — I  was  up,  and  at  the  landing.  A  great  many 
vessels  lay  in  the  bay,  but  they  were  nearly  all  too  far  off  to  dis- 
tinguish, even  to  what  class  they  belonged.  No  breeze  was 
stirring,  however,  and  if  the  "  Talisman"  had  not  left,  I  was 
tolerably  sure  of  getting  on  board ;  there  was  not  much  danger 
now  of  her  sailing  without  me. 

Hardly  any  body  seemed  as  yet  stirring ;  it  was  Sunday,  and 
I  always  hate  to  come  to  a  strange  place  on  a  Sunday  morning 
— you  can  find  nobody,  you  can  buy  nothing,  and  even  in  a  tra- 
veler's dress  people  look  at  you  and  wonder  where  you  come 
from  ;  for  they  have  nothing  else  to  do  on  that  day.  And  how 
much  more  so  was  this  the  case  with  me  to-day,  for  never  in  my 
life  had  my  dress  been  in  a  worse  state  than  at  present,  and  it 
had  been  in  very  bad  ones.  Dear  reader,  I  had  been  twenty-four 
days  in  the  saddle  nearly  at  a  stretch,  seventeen  days  a  break- 
neck gallop  nearly  all  the  time ;  traveling  through  the  snow, 
climbing  and  slidmg,  was  not  the  sort  of  thing  to  improve  my 
garments,  and  I  had  only  that  one  pair  with  me — yes,  I  might 


112  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

well  say,  I  had  had  that  one  pair,  for  to  be  candid,  they  no 
longer  existed,  except  piece-meal ;  even  the  stout  leather  of  my 
high  water-boots  had  been  rubbed  through  on  the  sides,  and  at 
the  same  time  there  had  been  no  possibility  of  getting  ready- 
made  clothing  on  the  way,  except  cheripaws,  and  I  could  not 
walk  in  those  clumsy  things. 

Clean  linen  I  had,  of  course,  taken  with  me,  but  nothing  else, 
not  a  spare  stick  in  case  of  necessity,  my  only  safeguard  being 
the  long  Argentine  poncho,  which  covered  all.  And  I  looked 
pleasant  in  it,  scarlet  of  course  being  the  predominant  color,  with 
a  blood-red  silk  kerchief,  tied  loosely  over  the  poncho  round  my 
neck,  Argentine  fashion.  My  hat  also  rather  the  worse  for  wear 
— in  former  times  a  fine,  broad-brimmed  black,  felt  sombrero — 
but  the  brim  had  been  torn  off,  or  opened  at  least  close  to  the 
head  nearly  all  around,  by  the  continued  flapping  up  and  down, 
while  galloping,  and  set  me  off  to  the  best  advantage.  Add  to 
this  the  sun-burnt  face,  hair  and  beard  not  shorn — I  forgot  when, 
and  no  wonder  the  dogs  barked  at  me,  when  they  saw  me  come 
down  the  street  in  my  red  and  shining  brightness — there  is  a 
countless  number  of  unowned  dogs  in  the  streets  of  Valparaiso — 
and  I  really  do  not  know  how  I  should  have  kept  them  at  bay 
much  longer  ;  for  hearing  the  barking  they  came  flocking  in  from 
all  the  other  streets,  and  I  had  in  fact  already  drawn  my  knife, 
when  a  young  peon,  passing  by,  and  seeing  my  difficulty,  stepped 
kindly  up,  and  swung  his  arm  round  his  head,  as  if  he  was 
whirling  a  lasso.  The  nearest  caught  the  alarm,  and  they 
scampered  down  the  street  after  two  or  three  had  commenced 
running.  The  dogs  in  Valparaiso  have  all  rather  a  bad  con- 
science, and  fear  the  lasso  extremely ;  so  those  dogs  which  were 
coming  down  the  street  to  the  rescue,  hardly  saw  the  others  flee- 
ing, before  they  turned  tail  themselves,  without  even  asking 
what  had  been  the  matter. 

I  got  rid  of  the  dogs,  but  still  it  was  most  disagreeable  to  feel 
as  if  every  one  was  staring  at  you  behind.  But,  away  with  de- 
spair, even  if  I  had  missed  the  ship,  I  should  find  my  trunk  here, 
and  could  soon  have  dry  and  whole  clothing  again.  I  also  had 
money  at  some  merchant's  in  town,  and  being  of  a  disposition  to 
take  things  lightly,  I  walked  down  to  the  landing  again,  where 
I  saw  a  European-looking  gentleman  crossing  the  street ;  he 
looked  at  the  same  time  like  an  American,  and  was  in  fact  the 


VALPARAISO  AND  CHILI.  113 

landlord  of  the  Star  Hotel,  as  I  afterward  found,  and  could  give 
me  all  the  information  I  wanted. 

"  Did  he  know  the  '  Talisman  ?' — Why,  nearly  all  the  passen- 
gers on  board  had  dined,  and  the  captain  and  supercargo  staid 
with  him  as  long  as  they  were  on  shore." 

"  Had  ? — so  the  *  Talisman'  was  gone !" 

"Gone?  Of  course;  yesterday  afternoon,  about  five  o'clock, 
she  was  still  in  the  harbor." 

Yesterday  afternoon,  while  I  was  toiling  over  those  never  end- 
ing monotonous  hills,  the  "  Talisman"  had  left  her  anchorage.  If 
it  had  been  daylight,  I  could  not  have  helped  seeing  her  from 
the  top  of  the  last  hills,  with  all  sails  set,  beating  out  with  a 
light  northern  breeze  toward  the  west.  The  wind  had  been  so 
contrary  for  any  ship  to  leave  the  harbor  that  the  "  Talisman" 
had  been  the  only  one  that  tried  it,  tacking  and  tacking  till  she 
got  out,  and  once  really  all  but  letting  her  anchor  drop  again. 
Gone,  and  so  short  a  time  before,  that  was  disagreeable — but 
what  matter  ?  I  now  had  a  chance  of  looking  round  in  Val- 
paraiso, and  becoming  a  little  better  acquainted  with  Chili,  till 
the  next  ship  belonging  to  the  same  company,  the  "  Reform," 
came  in,  which  had  left  Germany  shortly  after  the  "  Talisman," 
and  continue  on  her  my  voyage  to  California. 

The  firm  with  whom  I  should  find  my  things,  was  Messrs. 
Lampe,  Miller  and  Fehrmann.  Mr.  Fehrmann  was  the  only 
one  who  lived  at  this  time  in  Valparaiso ;  and  as  all  the  stores 
were  closed  on  Sunday,  and  I  really  could  not  wait  till  next  day, 
I  inquired  his  address  and  went  to  see  him.  The  only  thing  I 
disliked  was  entering  his  house  in  such  a  fix,  and  rather  bash- 
fully I  stole  along  the  streets,  down  the  long  Almendral  (and 
there  was  no  chance  for  me  to  make  a  detour,  as  only  one  street 
ran  along  between  the  hills  and  the  coast)  to  Mr.  Fehrmann's 
residence. 

Fortunately  he  was  at  home,  but  just  ready  to  go  out.  I  only 
met  him  at  the  entrance,  and  he  seemed  rather  astonished  at 
being  addressed  by  such  a  person  as  myself  in  the  German  lan- 
guage— and  my  trunk  ? — "  I  really  do  not  know,"  he  answered; 
and  calling  directly  one  of  his  young  men  who  lived  in  the  same 
house,  asked  him  if  the  "  Talisman"  had  left  any  trunk  or  luggage 
for  one  of  the  passengers  in  the  store  or  custom-house — not  a 
thing,  in  spite  of  the  captain  and  the  supercargo's  promise,  they 


114  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

had  not  landed  the  least  article  for  me ;  and  all  I  called  my  own 
in  this  part  of  the  world,  all  that  I  wanted  in  linen  and  clothing, 
all  that  I  needed  to  continue  my  journey,  with  only  something 
like  comfort,  was  on  its  way  to  blessed  California,  going  along 
at  this  moment,  who  knew  at  how  many  knots  an  hour. 

There  was  most  certainly  no  joke  in  the  matter,  but  I  could 
not  help  myself,  I  had  to  laugh  right  out  when  I  heard  the 
news ;  and  Mr.  Fehrmann  also,  to  whom  I  mentioned  my  name, 
and  gave  the  outlines  of  my  voyage  in  a  few  words,  which  he 
had  also  heard  spoken  of  by  the  supercargo,  laughed  at  first — 
and  I  would  like  to  have  seen  the  man  who  could  have  remained 
serious — but  offered  me  at  the  same  time,  with  the  greatest  and 
most  friendly  hospitality,  his  house  as  a  residence  during  the 
time  I  should  be  obliged  to  stop  at  Valparaiso,  which  I  accepted 
as  frankly  as  it  was  offered,  finding  myself  soon  afterward  not 
merely  introduced  into  his  house,  but  also  into  his  family,  as  if  I 
had  belonged  to  it  from  earliest  childhood. 

But  my  clothing  was  in  such  a  desperate  state,  that  I  had 
really  to  borrow  only  the  most  necessary  articles,  before  I  could 
go  round  the  town  and  buy  what  I  needed. 

And  so  every  thing  turned  out  well,  and  next  morning  I  felt 
perfectly  reconciled  with  my  situation ;  I  could  now  rest  after  my 
tedious  journey,  see  new  and  interesting  things,  and  continue  my 
voyage  when  the  "  Reform"  came  in  from  Bremen.  She  was  to 
have  started  about  four  weeks  after  us,  and  not  touch  at  Rio, 
but  making  a  direct  passage  to  Valparaiso,  take  in  provisions 
there,  and  leave  directly  again  for  San  Francisco. 

Valparaiso,  one  of  the  most  important  towns  on  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  has  been  too  often  described  for  me  to  weary  the  English 
reader  with  the  repetition  of  old  and  most  certainly  known  ac- 
counts ;  I  will  give  him  only  the  outlines,  and  what  I  saw 
interesting  in  the  place.  He  will  find  much,  I  hope,  that  is 
amusing. 

Chili  is  a  fertile  and  in  many  parts  well-cultivated  land,  ex- 
porting quantities  of  grain,  flour,  and  vegetables  to  foreign  states, 
now  principally  to  California  and  Australia,  the  people  being, 
for  a  southern  state  at  least,  and  without  slave  work,  industrious 
enough.  But  besides  the  fertile  soil,  its  mines  are  exceedingly 
rich,  and  with  silver  and  copper  mines  have  yielded  extraordinary 
profits.  The  state  also  protects  this  branch  of  business,  I  might 


VALPARAISO  AND  CHILI.  115 

say  before  all  others.  Thus,  for  instance,  the  discoverer  of  a 
new  mine,  no  consequence  whose  land  the  ore  may  be  found  on, 
has  the  right  of  possession  over  the  place,  and  the  value  of  it  can 
not  be  fixed  by  the  former  owner,  but  the  state  determines  the 
price  itself  for  the  land,  not  according  to  the  richness  of  the  ore, 
but  to  that  of  the  soil  itself,  if  the  land  were  converted  to  agri- 
cultural purposes ;  even  more,  if  the  discoverer  of  the  ore,  in 
working  his  mine,  requires  wood  and  water,  and  is  prevented 
from  obtaining  them  through  the  other  property  of  the  former 
owner  surrounding  him,  the  latter  is  obliged  to  furnish  him  with 
both,  at  a  price  government  fixes. 

Government,  at  the  same  time,  desires  and  supports  immigra- 
tion of  Europeans,  principally  Germans  for  agriculture  ;  and  dur- 
ing my  residence  in  Valparaiso  several  German  families  who 
wanted  to  move  over  to  Valdivia  and  could  not  find  a  vessel  for 
that  port,  after  waiting  a  good  while  in  Valparaiso,  were  sent 
down  by  government  in  a  little  man-of-war  brig,  the  "  Condor" — 
passage  free,  though  they  had  to  find  their  own  provisions — to 
the  place  of  their  destination. 

The  climate  is  most  excellent,  as  no  part  of  the  country  lies 
in  a  tropical  latitude  ;  the  rainy  season  has  cool  and  pleasant 
nights,  to  give  the  blood  some  rest  and  keep  it  from  being  always 
in  a  boiling  state.  It  agrees  also  very  well  with  Europeans,  and 
those  of  my  countrymen  I  spoke  to  here,  and  nearly  all  from  the 
most  northern  parts  of  Germany,  knew  nothing  at  all  of  sickness, 
at  least  originating  in  the  climate. 

The  town  itself  consists  of  two  distinct  parts — the  Spanish 
and  European — I  may  almost  say  the  English  part,  for  I  believe 
there  are  more  English  merchants  in  Valparaiso  than  other  for- 
eign houses,  though  the  Germans  have  also  many  large  houses 
here,  and  some  of  the  best  firms  in  Valparaiso  are  German.  The 
foreign  part  of  the  town  is  built  nearest  to  the  water  and  consists, 
in  spite  of  the  earthquakes  which  not  unfrequently  attack  this 
part  of  the  world,  of  a  great  many  two  or  three  storied  houses, 
while  the  Chileans  prefer  lower  buildings.  .  The  foreign  part  has 
also  nothing  extraordinary  in  its  character,  you  see  houses  exactly 
like  them  all  over  the  world,  in  all  parts  and  ports ;  but  the 
Chilean  part  is  so  much  more  interesting,  and  principally  those 
little  buildings  which  form  a  kind  of  suburb,  running  along  the 
steep  hills,  and  sometimes  stuck  up  alongside  a  perfect  wall,  just 


116  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

enough  of  the  forepart  resting  upon  hard  ground  to  give  the  one 
end  of  the  beam  a  footing,  while  the  other  end,  not  twelve  feet 
long,  stands  on  higher  posts,  to  keep  it  horizontal.  The  hills  cut 
up  here,  in  fact,  by  a  quantity  of  steep  gulches,  called  quebradas, 
the  most  unhandy  place  to  build  a  town  in  imaginable  ;  but  the 
Chileans  did  not  care  about  that,  build  they  must,  and  where 
the  banks  were  not  really  perpendicular,  or  even  overhanging — 
ay,  where  they  only  got  a  chance  of  shoving  a  beam  in — there 
they  stuck  it,  and  there  they  had  some  house  or  other. 

Valparaiso  has  been  at  all  times  a  busy  place  ;  but  at  the  pre- 
sent, with  the  gold  excitement  spreading  over  the  world,  and  just 
on  the  very  spot  to  form  a  watering  station  for  all  those  vessels 
which  had  weathered  the  dangerous  Cape,  it  was  perfectly  crowd- 
ed with  vessels  ;  and  through  the  demand,  provisions,  and  especi- 
ally fruit,  rose  to  an  enormous  price.  Boarding  and  lodging  also 
rose  proportionately,  and  English,  American,  French,  and  Ital- 
ians did  their  best  in  erecting  new  hotels  and  cafes.  Just  at  the 
landing,  the  eye  was  greeted  by  a  rather  uninviting  California 
chop-house,  a  large  sign-boar  with  giant  letters.  The  Hole-in- 
the-Wall  came  next ;  also  right  in  front  of  the  landing,  and  both 
of  them  kept  by  Americans.  The  Golden  Lion,  a  common  dram- 
shop, also  tried  to  attract  boats,  by  the  sign  stuck  out  toward 
the  water.  Then  the  Star  Hotel,  the  Ship  Hotel,  a  new  one, 
established  by  a  Belgian,  and  affording  very  good  accommoda- 
tions. Also  a  good  Spanish  Hotel,  the  Chilean  House,  the  Euro- 
pean, the  Victoria  Hotel,  the  Hotel  de  France — in  short,  hotels 
wherever  you  looked,  and  making  money  as  fast  as  they  could 
take  it  in.  The  price  for  boarding  and  lodging  was  at  that  time 
one  and  a  half  dollars  per  day. 

But  we  will  return  here  again  after  awhile,  and  I  should  like 
to  take  the  reader  with  me  on  a  short  walk  through  town. 

It  is  still  very  early  yet,  when  we  pass  down  the  broad  street 
that  leads  toward  the  eastern  part  of  the  city — the  walk  is  cool 
and  shady,  and  over  the  garden  walls  fruit-laden  orange-trees  nod 
and  shake  their  rustling  dew  upon  the  pavement.  Pavement ! 
what  singular  ornaments  are  these  in  the  side- walks  ?  Stars 
and  crosses  laid  out  with  little  round  pebbles  and  bones — what 
an  odd  idea,  to  pave  streets  with  bones  ! — yes,  dear  reader,  and 
especially,  when  they  are  human  bones.  Those  stars  and  crosses 
are  composed  of  the  carpus  and  tarsus,  wrist  and  ankle  bones  of 


VALPARAISO  AND  CHILI.  117 

their  former  masters,  the  Spaniards.  They  carried  their  hostility 
against  the  conquered  enemy  so  far,  as  even  not  to  be  satisfied 
with  having  them  dead,  under  ground,  but  also  kept  some  part 
of  them  above  ground  to  stamp  their  heel  upon.  A  first-rate 
lesson  this  though,  for  all  severe  masters,  if  they  will  only  profit 
by  it,  while  there  is  time. 

The  Chileans  hated  the  Spaniards  so  much — ay,  even  hate 
them  now — that  they  will  never  permit  any  body  to  say  they  talk 
Spanish.  "  No,  Sneor,"  they  answer  "  ablamos  castellano." 

But  we  will  proceed  :  it  is  not  our  fault  that  they  here  dis- 
honor the  bones  of  the  dead — fanaticism  has  caused  it ;  and 
Mephistopheles,  whose  particular  delight  it  is  to  confound  belief 
and  unbelief  in  this  world,  has  caused  that  to  be  honored  in  one 
part  of  the  little  ant-hill  we  call  the  earth,  which  they  trample 
under  foot  in  the  other. 

We  now  reach  the  farther  end  of  the  town.  High  garden  walls 
alternate  with  low  Spanish  huts  and  houses  ;  there  are  some 
Norfolk  pines,  extending  their  slender  and  graceful  branches  over 
the  high  stone  fence,  and  not  far  from  them  a  quantity  of  little 
coffee-tables,  spread  with  a  white  clean  napkin,  invite  the 
guassos  coming  from  the  country  to  take  their  frugal  breakfast. 
What  a  blessing  it  is  not  to  be  tormented  any  longer  by  that 
dreadful  mate,  though  it  is  drunk  here  also,  but  by  no  means  to 
such  an  extent  as  on  the  other* side  of  the  Cordilleras. 

What  women  are  those  we  meet,  in  a  coarse  black  woolen 
dress,  a  cloth  of  the  same  stuff  thrown  over  their  heads,  so  as 
only  to  leave  a  part  of  the  forehead  and  the  eyes  free,  but  whose 
fingers,  while  holding  the  cloth  together,  reveal  a  transparent 
whiteness,  and  sparkle  with  costly  rings — are  they  penitents  ?  1 
thought  so  at  first ;  but  I  soon  learnt  this  was  the  church  dress 
of  the  Senoras  and  Senoritas.  The  ladies  had  worn,  as  I  was 
told,  only  a  little  while  before,  such  an  extraordinary  display  of 
jewels  and  other  ornaments,  silks  and  velvets,  that  the  holy 
padres — and  I  honor  them  for  it — thought  it  necessary  to  stop  such 
a  luxury  in  a  place  where  they  ought  to  have  come  only  to  pray 
to  their  God,  and  not  to  show  all  the  neighbors  their  finery ; 
and  how  many  thousands  of  our  ladies  in  England,  France,  Ger- 
many, and,  in  fact,  through  all  the  civilized  states  of  the  world, 
do  exactly  the  very  same  thing,  pretending  not  to  be  able  to 
do  without  their  weekly  or  daily  worship,  though,  in  fact,  only 


118  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

to  have  the  opportunity  of  displaying  a  new  bonnet  or  dress.  We 
should  all  be  equal  before  God  ;  and  as  we  pray,  "  lead  us  not  into 
temptation,"  we  should  also  not  lead  others  into  it,  by  kneeling  right 
before  their  very  eyes  in  some  new  finery,  just  brought  home  from 
the  dressmaker's  or  milliner's.  No,  the  black  cloth  covers  all  this  : 
and  the  hearts  that  beat  under  it  you  may  think,  can  have  no 
other  thoughts  but  of  their  God.  No,  dear  reader,  you  are  mis- 
taken there  ;  many  a  rendezvous  takes  place  even  beneath  that 
black  cover,  even  in  that  holy  place  ;  but  dress  can  not  alter 
that,  and  even  if  they  were  clothed  in  sackcloth,  the  heart 
would  beat  under  it  still. 

A  little  farther  on  we  met  a  chain-gang — prisoners  of  all 
climes  and  nations  cleaning  the  street,  the  dark  scowl  of  tho 
Chilean  bravo  by  the  side  of  the  open  and  even  daring  look  of 
the  gentleman  guasso,  in  his  common  poncho  and  dress,  though 
he  wears  fine  linen.  His  hand  had  been  rather  too  quick  in  a 
quarrel  at  grasping  the  knife — -his  memory  was  shorter  than  his 
patience ;  and  he  must  now  suffer  for  it  a  short  time,  but  in 
irons  with  the  rest,  amidst  felons  and  thieves  of  every  description. 
But  he  knows  his  time  will  soon  expire,  and  he  may  then  gallop 
on  his  prancing  steed  through  the  streets  he  is  now  forced  to 
sweep  with  chained  hands. 

Only  a  little  farther  on,  the  tiny  watercourse  comes  foaming 
and  gushing  down  the  narrow  ravine  from  the  hills.  Look  at 
that  glittering  and  sparkling  stuff  at  the  bottom,  like  golden 
specks  strewn  over  a  bed  of  sand.  It  is  only  mica,  though  many 
a  gold-searching  Californian  has  been  deceived  by  the  brightness 
of  the  worthless  stuff,  and  carried  bags  of  it  with  him,  much  to 
the  amusement  of  his  companions,  and  very  much  to  his  own 
discomfiture.  But  there  is  gold  in  these  hills,  notwithstanding, 
and  after  very  heavy  rains,  the  peons  wash  gold  even  in  the 
mouth  of  the  streams  that  pour  through  the  streets  of  Valparaiso, 
and  are  able  to  earn  about  half-a-dollar  a  day  at  it. 

But  we  must  turn  back.  The  streets  become  more  lively,  and 
there  by  the  canal  they  seem  to  have  even  a  horse-race  ;  but  they 
are  only  training  some  horses  for  the  first  leap  at  the  bar,  Let 
us  stop  here  a  minute. 

In  Chili  they  nearly  always  run  their  horses  very  short  dis- 
tances, even  one  or  two  hundred  yards,  and  the  first  leap — for  the 
horse  is  trained  not  to  lose  a  single  second  after  the  signal  is 


VALPARAISO  AND  CHILI  119 

given — must  be,  in  most  cases,  decisive.  The  horses,  therefore, 
are  taught  to  stand,  when  ready  to  start,  with  their  feet,  as 
close  together  as  goats  stand  upon  a  small  rock,  and  when  the 
signal  for  the  horses  to  start  is  given,  the  whole  weight  of  the 
animals,  like  the  sinew  on  the  bended  bow,  is  thrown  forward  in 
readiness  to  aid  the  first  leap. 

The  Chilean  horse  is  a  lively  and  active  little  animal,  and 
capable  of  far  more  exertion  than  you  may  think  at  first  sight. 
The  Chilean  nearly  always  gallops,  but  nor  at  such  a  wild 
speed  as  the  Argentine  ;  he  thinks  more  of  horse-flesh,  and  pays 
more  attention  to  his  animals  than  the  former ;  but  we  need 
not  say  more,  for  the  Argentine  does  not  attend  to  them  at  all. 

Nearly  all  the  Chileans  carry  the  lasso  on  their  saddles,  and 
have  the  same  dexterity  in  using  it  as  their  eastern  neighbors. 
The  children  commence  in  their  earliest  youth  practicing  with  it, 
and  you  can  see  nearly  every  where  little  boys  running  about  with 
thin  lassos  of  twine,  and  catching  chickens  or  little  dogs,  even 
trying  their  skill  once  in  a  while  on  a  larger  one ;  but  this  is  a 
rather  hazardous  experiment,  as  the  Chilean  dogs,  as  soon  as  they 
feel  something  round  their  necks — for  they  live  day  and  night  in 
the  greatest  fear  of  this  instrument — fly  for  their  lives,  not  unfre- 
quently  carrying  the  little  daring,  but  now  screaming  boy  with 
them  a  long  way  through  the  street,  till  the  line  breaks,  or 
somebody  else  comes  to  the  rescue.  Even  the  horse-police  always 
carry  the  lasso  on  the  back  part  of  their  saddles,  and  they  some- 
times use  them  also  in  broad  daylight,  if  they  want  to  catch  any 
body. 

There  is  a  law  in  Valparaiso  against  galloping  through  the 
streets,  and  a  most  excellent  law  it  is  too,  for  nobody  would  be 
safe  a  minute,  otherwise,  from  being  run  over,  whenever  he 
turned  a  corner ;  but  the  strangers  who  came  here,  did  not  agree 
with  it  at  all,  especially  the  Americans,  and  besides  that,  all 
seamen  in  particular  fight  hand  and  foot  against  it.  If  they  get 
on  board  of  a  horse,  they  do  not  want  to  log  two  or  three  knots ; 
they  must  also  have,  of  course,  a  pair  of  those  large  Chilean 
spurs,  if  they  only  mean  to  go  a  couple  of  miles  on  a  pleasure 
trip,  and  therefore  are  in  a  continual  quarrel  with  the  police — 
always  ending  though  to  their  disadvantage,  sometimes  with 
walking  home,  and  paying  a  fine  besides.  A  vessel  came  in  not 
long  before,  from  Baltimore,  and  some  of  the  passengers,  of  course, 


120  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

must  go  right  in  the  very  first  hour  to  a  livery  stable  (and  you 
see  the  sign-boards  with  a  horse  and  "  livery  stable"  painted  to 
the  right  and  left  all  over  the  town)  and  each  hire  a  horse  for  a 
trip  into  the  interior.  The  man  who  let  the  horses  to  them,  ac- 
quainted them,  of  course,  with  the  laws,  and  warned  them  not  to 
gallop  so  long  as  they  were  in  the  streets ;  but  what  did  they 
care  ?  the  man  only  told  them  this,  they  fancied,  not  to  have  his 
horses  ridden  hard,  and  digging  their  spurs  in,  away  they  went. 
But  they  had  hardly  passed  the  first  corner,  the  stable-boy  looking 
after  them  with  a  grin — for  he  knew  the  consequences — when 
they  heard  the  call  of  the  first  policeman.  Three  of  the  horses 
being  used  to  this  cry,  came  suddenly  to  a  dead  halt,  nearly 
throwing  two  of  their  riders  over  their  heads,  and  were  far  too 
well  satisfied  with  the  law  itself,  to  be  induced,  either  by  whip 
or  spur,  to  move  a  step,  till  the  police  officer  came  up,  and  had 
a  chance  of  giving  the  riders  a  fair  warning  ;  but  the  fourth,  a 
young,  lively,  and  rather  wild  animal,  with  a  good  rider  upon  its 
back,  and  the  sharp  wheel  of  the  spur  in  its  side,  never  stopped, 
but  did  its  utmost  to  get  out  of  harm's  way  as  soon  as  possible. 

The  police-officer  called  again,  and  seeing  it  was  no  use,  also 
spurred  his  horse,  and  the  chase  began.  The  American,  a  Green 
Mountain  boy,  who  had  ridden  many  a  Saturday  night,  at  a 
wilder  speed  than  this,  perhaps,  and  not  fearing  these  "  Span- 
joles,"  as  he  calls  them,  was  satisfied  with  having  such  a  good 
horse  under  him,  and  cared  little  about  the  rest.  On  they  went, 
the  people  getting  out  of  the  way,  and  looking  after  the  wild,  but 
not  uncommon  chase,  though  rather  astonished  at  seeing  a  for- 
eigner ride  so  well.  But  even  the  policeman  found  out  at  last 
that  he  should  not  overtake  him  till  they  got  out  of  town,  and 
not  wishing  to  leave  his  station  so  far,  he  gave  a  last  warning 
and  loosened  his  lasso.  On  seeing  that  was  not  obeyed,  he 
whirled  the  dangerous  weapon  a  couple  of  times  round  his  head, 
and  while  the  noose  darted  off,  and  his  own  animal  reared  back, 
the  astonished  Green  Mountain  boy  was  suddenly  caught  round 
the  arms  and  jerked  somewhere,  he  did  not  know  where,  till  he 
recovered  from  the  fall,  and  found  himself,  bruised  all  over,  in 
the  hands  of  the  police,  and  obliged  to  pay  a  certain  amount  of 
dollars  and  reals  for  the  pleasure. 

Besides  the  horses,  there  are  also  cabs  in  town,  for  the  ac- 
commodation of  the  public,  much  like  ours,  but  with  their  horses 


VALPARAISO  AND  CHILI.  121 

put  in  rather  differently.  The  off-horse  runs  in  the  same  way, 
but  the  other  is  only  fastened  to  his  saddle-girt,  with  a  strong 
piece  of  leather,  and  pulls  at  the  same  iron  ring  that  holds  the 
end  of  the  lasso. 

As  early  as  you  may  pass  through  the  streets  of  Valparaiso, 
you  hear  music — the  sounds  of  the  guitar  are  sure  to  be  alive  in 
some  house  or  other.  The  Chilean  is,  at  the  same  time,  social 
before  every  other  nation ;  and  should  I  ever  choose  another 
country  for  my  home,  after  having  seen  nearly  the  whole  world, 
it  would  be  Chili.  Americans  and  English — as  hospitable  and 
kind-hearted  as  they  may  be — are  cold  in  their  exterior  :  a  stran- 
ger above  all  must  be  introduced  to  them  first,  and  even  after- 
ward it  seems  a  very  difficult  thing  for  him  to  be  upon  a  really 
friendly  footing  with  any  body ;  let  them  pay  as  many  visits  as 
they  will  to  their  neighbor,  they  will,  with  very  few  exceptions, 
always  remain  strangers — they  have  not  the  gift  for  a  really 
social  life. 

It  is  different  with  the  Chileans.  If  you  come  among  them  a 
perfect  stranger,  without  being  acquainted  with  a  single  one, 
without  a  letter  of  introduction,  in  which  state  you  would  be 
among  English  and  Americans — but  principally  among  the 
former — if  you  did  not  need  their  immediate  help  ;  and  English 
and  Americans  will  never  deny  that — as  if  on  a  desert  island  in 
some  ocean — you  may  try  on  every  side,  but  give  it  up  at  last  in 
despair.  The  Chilean,  on  the  contrary,  as  soon  as  he  finds  out 
you  are  a  respectable  man,  comes  himself  to  call  on  you,  and  you 
are  from  the  first  minute  on  such  a  footing  in  his  house,  as  if  you 
had  been  a  visitor  for  years. 

A  passenger  afterward  came  with  the  "  Reform,"  who  intended 
to  stay  a  longer  time  in  Valparaiso,  and  rented  a  little  room  for 
himself,  though  he  could  not  even  speak  Spanish  at  that  time 
properly ;  but  he  had  only  been  a  few  days  in  his  lodgings,  and 
his  neighbors  had  heard  he  was  a  perfect  stranger  and  a  gentle- 
man, when  they  sent  over  to  him,  inviting  him  into  their  family, 
and  received  and  treated  him  with  the  greatest  kindness. 

But  to  return  to  the  landing.  What  a  crowd  there  is  round  the 
place !  English  sailors,  from  a  man-of-war,  just  returned  from 
California,  have  had  a  fight  on  the  landing ;  and  hearing  soldiers 
coming  down  the  street,  and  not  willing  to  get  acquainted  with 
the  Chilean  calabozo,  they  made  a  rush  to  their  boat,  with  which 

F 


122  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

they  have  just  landed  coals,  to  get  off  to  their  ship.  Hundreds 
of  peons  who  were  standing  idling  upon  the  plaza,  to  wait  for 
work,  and  perhaps  not  over  anxious  to  get  it,  laughed  at  the 
hurry  the  sailors,  who  were  just  a  minute  before  raving  mad,  dis- 
played ;  and  Jack,  not  liking  to  be  laughed  at,  but  seeing  the 
multitude,  and  hearing  the  music  of  the  approaching  soldiers, 
pushed  out.  The  sailors  had  hardly  left  the  landing,  while  the 
peons  were  flocking  in  swarms  round  the  stairs,  laughing  at 
them  in  their  harmless  way,  when  they  found  in  their  long-boat 
pieces  of  the  coal  carried  on  shore,  and  used  them  as  a  missile, 
astonishing  the  natives  not  a  little  by  throwing  stones  from  out 
of  the  sea,  right  among  them,  and  hitting  those  which  had  least 
expected  it.  But  while  all  of  them  wanted  to  have  a  throw,  they 
did  not  move  forward  with  their  boat,  and  the  Chileans  rushed 
back  to  some  heaps  of  pebbles  opportunely  standing  on  the  land- 
ing, gathering  them  up  in  their  hats  and  ponchos,  they  returned 
to  the  fight,  and  the  sailors  found,  rather  too  late,  that  they  had 
stirred  up  a  hornets'  nest.  Four  of  them  immediately  caught  up 
their  oars,  but  one  stout  fellow,  the  very  picture  of  an  old  English 
tar,  stood  upon  one  of  the  hindmost  thwarts,  and  turned  his  broad 
front  daringly  to  the  Chileans,  and  as  he  had  no  coals  left  to  re- 
turn the  thickly-flying  missiles,  he  abused  them  in  the  loudest 
and  most  insulting  language,  calling  them  blackguards,  &c.,  and 
now  and  then — to  give  them  a  taste  m  their  own  language — 
carachos  and  infernal  Spanjoles. 

A  little  midshipman  was  in  the  boat,  when  the  sailors  rushed 
in  and  enjoyed  the  sport,  as  it  seemed,  exceedingly,  as  long  as  the 
saitors  only  threw  from  the  boat,  but  was  rather  taken  aback  when 
the  peons  returned  it  in  such  a  liberal  manner.  So,  half-laugh- 
ing, but  also  a  little  careful  of  his  own  person,  he  stationed  him- 
self just  behind  the  stout  sailor,  dodging  whenever  he  saw  a  stone 
coming,  and  rather  pleased  on  the  whole,  as  he  had  such  a  good 
place  to  see  the  fun.  The  boat  had  gained  headway  by  this 
time,  and  would  soon  have  been  out  of  stones'  throw,  when  a 
sailor,  dead  drunk,  as  it  seemed,  who  had  been  forgotten  on 
the  beach,  pressed  through  the  crowd  on  shore,  and  seeing  his 
boat  gone  gave  a  loud  cheer  and  jumped  right  down  from  the 
top  of  the  landing-stairs  into  the  water.  The  boat  had,  of  course 
to  wait  for  him,  and  the  peons  tried  in  the  mean  time  their  best 
to  hit  the  sailor,  who  was  still  standing,  nearly  unharmed,  mock- 


VALPARAISO  AND  CHILI.  123 

ing  and  cursing  them,  nobody  noticing  the  swimmer  till  a  cry 
turned  every  eye  upon  him — the  man  was  sinking.  Nearly  dead 
drunk,  he  had  hardly  an  idea  which  direction  he  should  take, 
and  had  also  most  certainly  so  heavy  a  load  on  board  already, 
that  he  sunk  and  took  in  water.  Once  he  came  up,  and  sunk 
again.  The  boat  pulled  back  now  as  hard  as  it  could,  and  a 
couple  of  Chileans  also  pushed  out  to  him  with  another  small 
boat  from  the  stairs.  All  hostilities  had  ceased,  and  both  boats 
met,  when  the  now  perfectly  unconscious  seaman  rose  up,  just 
with  his  head  above  the  water  for  the  last  time.  Four  or  five 
hands  grasped  him,  and  pulling  him  into  the  boat,  threw  him 
into  the  bottom,  and  then  bending  to  their  oars,  they  shot  along 
swiftly  toward  the  rnan-of-war. 

Speaking  of  a  midshipman,  I  can  not  forget  a  little  fellow  of 
that  species  whom  I  met  one  day  on  the  beach  outside  town.  I 
was  coming  from  the  lighthouse,  where  I  had  been  looking  if  I 
could  see  any  thing  of  my  expected  vessel,  and  he  was  standing 
with  his  arms  folded,  fondly  observing  a  splendid  man-of-war 
steamer,  which  was  stationed  here  in  the  bay.  The  young  gen- 
tleman might  have  been  at  the  utmost  fourteen  years  of  age.  I 
stopped  not  far  from  him,  and  also  took  a  look  over  the  bay  ;  and 
he,  seeing  my  eye  turned  toward  his  own  vessel,  I  fancy,  broke 
out  admiringly,  and  said,  half-turning  to  me  as  if  there  had  been 
•  no  other  vessel  in  the  bay. 

"Isn't  she  a  noble-looking  craft  ?     Did  you  ever  see  her  equal  ?" 

"  The  steamer,  you  mean  ?  Yes,  she  is  a  beautiful  vessel,"  I 
answered.  "  Where  is  she  bound  for  ?" 

"Bound  for?"  I  shall  never  forget  the  look  he  gave  me, 
"bound  for?  why,  Sir,  she  is  a  man-of-war  steamer." 

Just  at  this  time  the  Chileans  held  a  kind  of  eve  to  their  Sep- 
tember festivities,  in  honor  of  obtaining  their  independence.  On 
a  free  and  open  plain  upon  the  hills,  near  the  lighthouse,  on  a 
sunny  day  in  August,  tents  were  pitched  as  if  a  fair  was  going  to 
be  held,  and  crowds  of  people  flocked  up  on  the  heights  to  see 
the  militia- artillery  exercise.  The  blue,  red,  and  white  Chilean 
flag,  with  the  two  rearing  guanakas,  fluttered  in  the  fresh  breeze, 
and  every  where  around  small  family  parties  were  camping, 
while  an  uninterrupted  line  of  people  was  still  moving  up  the 
small  and  steep  path  which  led  in  a  zig-zag  course  toward  the 
top  of  the  hill. 


124  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

The  militia  marched  and  handled  their  guns,  all  drawn  by 
hand,  very  well  indeed,  and  the  populace  crowded  round  the 
drinking-tents,  turning  sometimes  to  look  at  the  soldiers  exercise, 
sometimes  to  watch  the  white  sails  on  the  horizon,  as  they  came 
nearer,  with  the  fresh  southern  breeze ;  for  the  place  allowed  a 
free  view  over  the  wide  Pacific  Ocean  to  the  south,  and  west,  and 
north,  and  the  white  breakers  far  below  on  the  dark  slimy  reefs. 

Right  between  the  groups  walking  up  and  down,  or  strewn 
over  the  ground,  even  into  the  very  tents,  among  the  drinking 
and  eating  multitude,  riders  galloped,  as  if  their  horses  had  safely- 
cushioned  feet  and  not  hard  hoofs,  ready  to  play  the  very  mischief 
with  any  corn  they  might  light  upon.  Now  they  stop  near  a 
group,  laughing  and  drinking,  the  horse  looking  up  into  the  eyes 
of  his  master's  friends,  as  if  it  knew  every  one  of  them,  and  so  it 
did,  I  have  not  the  least  doubt. 

Long  cavalcades  of  ladies  and  gentlemen,  the  former  nearly 
all  clothed  in  English  riding-habits,  but  often  also  in  that  of  the 
quasso-senoritas,  with  their  common  frock  and  a  short  embroid- 
ered poncho  thrown  over  their  dress,  and  very  frequently  attended 
by  officers  of  the  English  army,  galloped  up  the  hill,  following 
the  broad,  smooth  road  toward  the  light-house,  or  stopping  oppo- 
site the  marching  and  manoeuvring  militia. 

In  the  midst  of  this  life,  there  were  also  men,  however,  whose 
attention  could  not  be  attracted  either  by  the  deep,  blue,  sunlit- 
sea,  by  the  exercising  artillery,  or  even  by  the  sparkling  eyes  of 
the  fair  Chilean  girls — and  I  really  believe  Valparaiso  has  received 
its  name  after  them — these  men  were  the  gamblers,  who  squatted 
round  a  poncho  stretched  out  upon  the  green  sward,  watching 
their  doves  and  cards,  and  not  caring  a  straw  for  nature  or 
nature's  beauties,  as  long  as  they  could  not  exchange  them  for 
dollars  or  ounces.  Often,  too,  a  merry  guasso,  whose  spirits  had 
been  raised  by  the  last  glasses  of  strong  chendoza  wine,  would 
gallop  right  up  into  the  very  centre  of  the  players,  the  horse 
knowing  well  enough  how  to  act  on  such  occasions,  being  very 
careful  before  all  other  things  not  to  step  upon  any  body's  toes, 
pushing  aside  the  surrounding  multitude  with  its  nose,  and  after- 
ward putting  its  fore-feet  right  upon  the  poncho,  while  the  guasso 
himself  threw  down  his  dollar,  or  even  his  half  ounce  upon  some 
favorite  card,  watching  the  game  beneath  him  at  the  same  time 
with  his  left  elbow  upon  the  pommel  of  his  saddle,  and  his  right 


VALPARAISO  AND  CHILI.  125 

hand  supported  upon  his  right  knee,  with  a  half-cunning  half- 
smiling  eye. 

But  we  are  losing  too  much  time  up  here  ;  it  is  getting  late, 
and  we  want  to  clamber  down  the  quebradas,  and  take  a  peep 
into  this  wild  part  of  the  town. 

How  dangerous  these  huts  hang  upon  the  steep  slopes  of  the 
hills  !  If  a  good  earthquake  were  to  shake  these  posts  again  to.- 
gether,  and  throw  one  hut  into  the  chimney  of  the  other,  or  if  a 
fire  were  to  rage  along  these  dry  spars  and  rafters,  playing  along 
on  the  banks,  and  every  where  finding  combustibles  for  its  greedy 
tongue — the  idea  alone  is  dreadful ;  and,  as  I  am  told,  a  fire  has 
raged  since  that  time,  at  least  in  a  part  of  this  quarter,  clearing 
the  slopes  of  habitations,  and  sending  the  burning  beams  whizzing 
into  the  narrow  mountain-gulf  below. 

This  part  of  the  town  seems,  however,  to  be  in  rather  a  bad 
repute — and  not  without  cause.  Here  are  also  the  most  fre- 
quented, and  in  fact  only  haunts  of  the  sailors,  who  have  given 
the  difficult  summits  of  the  quebradas  the  significant  appellations 
of  fore  and  maintop,  &c.  But  you  had  better  take  care  how  you 
enter  these  narrow  streets,  that  look  like  mountain-passes,  after 
dark,  or  you  might  get  better  acquainted  with  the  wild  life  of 
Valparaiso  than  you  ever  had  a  wish  to. 

Drunken  sea  or  landsmen — the  difference,  as  it  seems,  disap- 
pearing at  this  altitude — press  you  in  their  rough  benevolence  to 
drink  with  them ;  and  quarrels  and  jealousy  have  already  caused 
many  a  blade  to  be  drawn,  and  colored  it  with  the  warm  heart' s- 
blood  of  the  victim.  If  a  murder  is  committed,  every  door  is 
directly  closed,  the  persons  in  the  streets  glide  up  the  steep  and 
dark  quebradas  to  escape  the  law  and  its  disagreeable  conse- 
quences, and  the  murderer  takes  a  walk  to  the  sea-shore  to  wash 
off  the  signs  of  his  guilt,  perhaps  the  remembrance  of  it  also,  with 
the  blood  of  his  victim ;  while  the  police-officers  take  up  the 
wounded  man  to  have  him  looked  to,  or  if  he  is  dead,  to  bury  the 
corpse — perhaps  that  very  night. 

Night  sets  in  fast  now ;  what  a  dreadful  noise  they  are  making 
over  there,  in  the  lighted-up  rooms,  just  opposite  the  foretop,  and 
in  a  few  houses  farther  down — the  roofs  of  which  though  lie  far 
below  the  level  upon  which  the  former  house  stands — guitars  and 
harps,  or  some  such  instruments,  and  tambourines,  and  knocking 
against  boards  and  planks,  as  if  tables  and  benches  took  part  in 


126  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

the  wild  concert.  I  pressed  into  the  crowded  room,  and  a  perfect 
steam  of  tobacco,  aqua  ardiente,  and  who  knows  what  other 
vapors,  nearly  drove  me  back  again.  There  had  also  been  a 
fight ;  on  a  bench  next  the  door  lay  the  body  of  an  English  sailor, 
seemingly  lifeless,  most  certainly  senseless,  his  features  blue  and 
swollen,  and  the  blood  streaming  down  from  his  face,  while  some 
of  his  comrades  were  emptying  his  pockets  of  watch  arid  money, 
for  fear  of  the  company  afterward — and  left  him  to  his  fate. 

A  large  ring  was  formed,  and  sailors  from  English  and  Chilean 
men-of-war  were  dancing  with  the  wild  girls  of  this  region.  They 
seemed  to  perform  a  kind  of  quadrille,  but  there  was  no  order  in 
the  whole,  the  couples  pulling  here  and  there,  and  running  against 
one  another  in  their  mad  revelry. 

A  wild  peculiar  cry,  like  a  scream,  sounded  through  the  room ; 
a  tall,  sunburnt  fellow,  a  guasso  as  it  seemed,  of  the  better  class, 
not  frequently  seen  in  this  part  of  the  town,  jumped  into  the 
ring,  and  the  music  stopped  ;  the  dancers  stepped  back  upon  the 
crowd,  and  the  Chilean  called  to  the  musicians  in  a  clear  manly 
voice  for  a  samacueca. 

The  next  minute  they  struck  tip  the  tune,  but  it  was  a  national 
dance,  and  three  or  four  other  guitars  directly  joined  in,  while  the 
young  quasso  threw  off  his  poncho  and  hat,  and  stood  awaiting 
his  lady.  He  was  a  splendid  specimen  of  a  South  American,  and 
his  eyes  sparkled  and  glistened,  when  the  ring  parted  opposite  to 
him,  and  a  really  beautiful,  tall,  and  fair-haired  girl,  with  a  wild 
deceitful  look  in  her  soft  eyes,  stepped  out,  waving  a  white  ker- 
chief in  her  hand. 

The  samacueca  is  the  national  dance  of  the  Chileans — the 
fandango  of  their  Spanish  ancestors,  and  always  performed  by  a 
young  man  and  woman.  The  couple  move  up  to  one  another, 
waving  and  flirting  with  their  kerchiefs,  approaching  and  return- 
ing, passing  each  other,  sometimes  side  by  side,  sometimes  under 
the  lifted  arm,  but  always  without  touching.  The  movements 
of  the  pair  were  really  graceful,  and  the  spectators  shouted  and 
screamed  in  pure  delight.  The  guitar  players  made  at  every 
vibration  of  the  right  hand  a  full  sweep  across  the  strings,  sing- 
ing at  the  same  time  a  wild  love  song,  at  the  highest  pitch  of 
their  voices,  and  also  gained  the  accompaniment  of  some  girls, 
who  darted  toward  them,  and  beat  time,  as  if  the  noise  was  not 
half-mad  enough  yet,  upon  the  sounding  boards  of  the  instruments. 


VALPARAISO  AND  CHILI.  127 

But  away — away — the  place  may  interest  you  for  a  few  min- 
utes, but  it  is  too  disgusting  to  stay  longer,  and  we  will  clamber 
again  down  the  steep  quebrada,  and  reach  the  lower  parts  of  the 
town. 

I  went  to  the  theatre  the  same  night,  and  the  house  was 
crowded ;  there  was  a  little  operetta  first — the  tenor  had  a  fine, 
beautiful  voice,  and  was  applauded  very  much,  and  after  this  a 
comedy  was  performed,  which  principally  interested  the  French 
part  of  the  audience — and  I  believe  half  of  it  was  French  that 
evening.  Not  long  before,  the  French  ship  "  Edouard,"  from 
Havre,  had  entered  the  harbor,  but  was  kept  at  Valparaiso  some 
time  by  difficulties  that  arose  between  captain  and  passengers  ; 
on  board  this  ship  was  the  blind  poet  Arago,  who  intended  to  go 
to  California,  but  altered  his  mind  afterward,  and  did  not  go 
farther.  He  had  written,  during  his  stay  here,  this  comedy,  to 
respond  to  the  wishes  of  a  great  many  of  his  countrymen  in  the 
town.  French  comedians  had  also  come  in  the  "  Edouard,"  but 
there  was  this  difficulty  in  the  representation :  part  of  it  had  to 
be  performed  by  French,  part  of  it  by  Spanish  actors  and 
actresses,  none  of  them  understanding  both  languages.  But 
there  is  a  help  for  every  thing,  so  the  French  actors  performed 
their  part  in  French,  the  Spanish  theirs  in  their  own  language, 
and  all  went  well.  The  French  were  raving  mad  that  evening, 
and  I  really  do  not  know  how  many  pairs  of  white  kid  gloves 
they  burst  during  that  one  half  hour,  but  there  was  a  continual 
clapping  of  hands,  and  the  poet — an  old  silver-haired  and  vener- 
able man — was  loudly  called  for  at  the  end.  He  was  sitting  in 
a  box  close  to  the  stage,  between  two  young  ladies  in  white,  and 
rose  up  between  them  to  speak  a  few  words  of  thanks  in  his  own 
language. 

The  French  seemed  to  consider  the  whole  as  a  kind  of  nation- 
al triumph,  and  went  off,  like  rockets  in  every  direction. 

The  theatre  at  Valparaiso  is  a  lofty  and  well-finished  building, 
and  boasts  an  exceedingly  good  orchestra.  The  Chileans,  like 
all  the  northern  nations,  are  very  fond  of  music,  and  have  an  ear 
for  it  as  well. 

I  witnessed  this  same  night  a  most  singular  custom  among 
the  native  South  Americans,  which  made  a  deep  impression 
upon  me.  On  returning  home  rather  late,  after  accompanying 
some  captains  of  my  acquaintance  to  the  landing  where  their 


128  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

boat  was  waiting  for  them,  I  passed  a  low  roofed  house,  in 
whose  well-lighted  room  music  and  dancing  were  going  on.  I 
tried  to  get  a  look  through  the  curtained  window,  but  did  not 
succeed  and  was  just  passing  on  when  the  door  opened,  and  two 
men  came  out.  A  third  one  was  just  going  to  shut  the  door 
again  when  he  saw  me,  and  addressing  me  asked  me  in  the  most 
friendly  way  to  come  in  and  be  welcome.  Always  ready  to  see 
what  I  could  wherever  I  got  a  chance,  I  followed  his  kind  invi- 
tation, and  found  myself  the  next  minute  in  a  perfect  flood  of 
light,  but  in  a  very  small  room,  crowded  with  people. 

Taking  in  the  whole  at  the  first  glance,  the  room  seemed 
rather  poorly  furnished,  with  white-washed  walls,  only  here  and 
there  ornamented  with  small  and  colored  pictures  of  saints  and 
martyrs.  The  tables  and  chairs  were  made  of  pine-wood — the 
latter  with  cane  bottoms  ;  and  one  corner  of  the  room,  and  a 
great  part  of  the  whole  space,  in  fact,  was  taken  up  by  a  large 
bed  covered  with  flowered  curtains,  instead  of  a  musquito  net ; 
but  the  curtains  thrown  back  at  present  to  offer  room  for  those 
guests  who  would  not  dance  themselves.  Aqua  ardiente  and 
duloes  were  handed  round  ;  while  all,  men  and  women,  the  dan-* 
cers  excepted,  smoked  their  cigarillos.  But  the  most  remarka- 
ble thing  in  the  room  seemed  to  me  a  large  kind  of  scaffold, 
which  occupied  the  other  corner  opposite  the  bed,  and  consisting 
of  a  light  frame-work,  ornamented  all  over  with  artificial  flowers, 
little  pictures  of  saints,  and  a  quantity  of  small  lighted  wax- 
candles.  On  the  top  of  it,  a  most  extraordinary  well-made  wax- 
figure  of  a  little  child  was  seated  on  a  low  wooden  chair,  dressed 
in  a  show- white  lady  frock — the  eyes  were  closed — thek  pale 
cheeks  tinged  by  a  soft  rosy  hue,  and  the  whole  figure  perfectly 
strewn  with  flowers.  It  might  have  been  about  seven  feet  high, 
and  the  figure  was  so  deceptive,  that  when  I  drew  near  at  first, 
I  thought  it  a  real  child,  while  a  young  woman  below  it,  pale, 
and  with  tears  in  her  eyes,  might  very  well  have  been  the 
mother.  But  that  was  most  certainly  a  mistake ;  for  at  this 
moment  one  of  the  men  stepped  up  to  her,  invited  her  to  the 
dance,  and  a  few  minutes  afterward  she  was  one  of  the  merriest 
in  the  crowd. 

But  it  must  really  be  a  child — no  sculptor  could  have  formed 
that  little  face  so  exquisitely ;  and  now  one  light  went  out,  close  to 
the  little  head,  and  the  cheek  lost  its  rosy  hue.  My  neighbors 


VALPARAISO  AND  CHILL  129 

at  last  remarked  the  attention  with  which  I  looked  upon  the 
figure  or  child,  whichever  it  was ;  and  the  nearest  one  now  in- 
formed me,  as  far  as  I  could  understand  him,  that  the  little  thing 
up  there  was  the  child  of  the  woman  with  the  pale  face,  who 
was  dancing  then  so  merrily  ;  the  whole  festivity  taking  place, 
in  fact,  only  on  account  of  that  little  angel. 

I  shook  my  head  doubtfully ;  and  my  neighbor,  to  convince 
me,  took  my  arm  and  led  me  to  the  frame,  where  I  had  to  step 
upon  the  chair  and  nearest  table,  and  touch  the  cheek  and  hand 
of  the  child. 

It  was  a  corpse  ;  and  the  mother,  seeing  I  had  doubted  it,  but 
was  now  convinced,  came  up  to  me,  and  smilingly  told  me  that 
it  had  been  her  child,  and  was  now  a  little  angel  in  heaven. 
The  guitars  and  cacaes  commenced  wildly  again,  and  she  had  to 
return  to  the  dance. 

I  left  the  house  as  in  a  dream,  but  afterward  heard  the  ex- 
planation of  this  ceremony.  If  a  little  child,  I  believe  up  to  four 
years  of  age,  dies  in  Chili,  it  is  thought  to  go  straight  to  heaven 
and  become  a  little  angel ;  the  mother  being  prouder  of  that — 
before  the  eyes  of  the  world,  at  least — than  if  she  had  reared  her 
child  to  happy  man  or  womanhood.  The  little  corpse  is  ex- 
hibited then,  as  I  had  seen  it ;  and  they  often  continue  danc- 
ing and  singing  around  it  till  it  displays  signs  of  putrefaction. 
But  the  mother,  whatever  the  feelings  of  her  heart  may  be,  must 
laugh,  and  sing,  and  dance  ;  she  dare  not  give  way  to  any  selfish 
wishes,  for  is  not  the  happiness  of  her  child  secured  ?  Poor 
mother  ! 

The  Chileans  have  other  singular  fashions  with  their  burials. 
Next  morning  I  went  up  to  the  grave-yard,  which,  on  the  very 
steep,  abrupt  hill,  under  which  the  town  is  built,  and  the  quebra- 
das  run  up  to,  overlooks  the  place  with  the  whole  bay,  and  per- 
mits an  unbounded  prospect  seaward.  A  little  pavilion  is  raised 
on  the  very  edge  of  the  cliff,  and  you  can  enjoy  the  most  beauti- 
ful view  from  the  habitation  of  the  dead  ;  and  many  an  hour  I 
dreamed  away  up  there,  surrounded  by  putrefaction  in  every 
sense  of  the  word. 

I  like  to  visit  burial-grounds ;  I  find  an  ineffable  charm  in 
walking  about  between  the  flat,  low  hummocks  under  which  the 
quiet  dead  lie,  with  clasped  hands,  in  their  narrow  beds,  like 
withered  leaves  in  an  album,  the  short  inscription  upon  them 

F* 


130  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

marking  name  and  date  of  the  leaf!  And  how  I  love  to  see  the 
sweet  flowers  keeping  watch  over  the  sleeping !  Loving  hands 
planted  them  there,  and  they  shake  their  dew  and  waft  their  soft 
odor  over  the  tombs  ! 

There  were  some  beautiful  monuments  in  the  Roman  Catholic 
Cemetery,  the  most  beautiful  of  all  being  that  of  an  English  fam- 
ily of  the  name  of  Waddington,  another  of  the  Gonzales,  cut  in 
Italy  out  of  Cararra  marble,  to  cover  the  dead  on  the  shores  of 
the  Pacific  Ocean.  But  I  do  not  like  monuments  ;  they  press  too 
heavily  upon  the  poor  departed — they  lie  too  impenetrably  be- 
tween them  and  the  flowers,  which  can  creep  over  the  stone,  but 
no  more  whisper  their  sweet  loving  words  to  the  sleepers  beneath. 
My  last  resting-place  I  should  like  very  different.  I  should  wish 
to  be  buried  in  the  forest,  in  my  own  green  woods ;  and  the  tree 
whose  roots  twined  around  me,  should  drop  its  dew  upon  the 
lowly  grave  to  water  my  flowers,  and  give  shelter  to  the  birds 
which  whispered  their  sweet  songs  over  the  departed  ;  but  no  hard 
arid  heavy  stone  upon  the  grave — the  earth  pressed  heavily  enough 
upon  us,  when  we  have  to  bid  farwell  to  all  that  was  dear  and 
beloved  upon  it ! 

Just  behind  the  splendid  monument  of  the  Gonzales  family 
stood  a  high,  singularly-shaped  building  ;  it  really  looked  like  an 
old  whitewashed  watch-tower,  without  door  or  window,  about 
eighteen  feet  high,  and  perhaps  five  or  six  in  diameter,  with  a 
kind  of  bird-cage  iron  net-work  over  it.  The  young  man  who  had 
offered  to  be  my  guide  up  here,  told  me  this  was  the  bone-house, 
where  the  bones  were  thrown  in  when  they  cleaned  an  old  pit ! 

Pit !  did  they  bury  their  dead  here  in  pits  ?  I  should  soon 
learn.  He  led  me  to  a  hole,  as  I  may  well  call  it,  in  the  lower 
part  of  the  cemetery,  not  twenty  steps  from  the  very  pavilion 
which  offers  a  view  over  the  animated  and  beautiful  scenery 
below.  It  was  about  ten  feet  deep,  sixteen  or  eighteen  feet  long, 
and  perhaps  ten  feet  wide,  and  seemed  at  first  sight  to  be  empty  ; 
but  a  shudder  seized  upon  me,  when  a  second  look  convinced  me 
of  the  dreadful  reality.  The  pit  was  full  of  corpses :  on  every 
side  they  lay,  stretched  out  here  without  coffin  or  cover,  with 
only  a  few  spadefuls  of  sand  thrown  over  them  ;  here  a  leg  stuck 
out  from  the  horrible  mass,  there  a  hand  or  an  arm ;  and  fresh 
corpses  were  thrown  on  top,  and  formed  only  another  layer,  till 
the  hole  was  filled,  and  another  one  had  to  be  opened  for  a  new 


* 
VALPARAISO  AND  CHILI,  131 

ghostly  population  ;  but  the  old  one  is  left  open,  without  a  cover 
to  keep  off  rain  or  sunshine,  till  it  is  filled. 

They  have  at  the  same  time  the  singular  custom  of  burying 
their  dead — if  you  call  it  burying — at  twelve  o'clock  at  night. 
— With  the  twelfth  stroke  of  the  clock,  the  coffin  or  corpse  bearers 
if  the  dead  are  laid  in  this  hole  and  are  carried  out  in  an  open 
kind  of  box — leave  the  house,  and  walk  up  in  as  large  a  body  as 
circumstances  admit,  each  bearing  a  lantern,  to  the  burial-ground ; 
burying  the  dead,  if  they  have  money  enough  to  pay  for  a  single 
grave  (twenty  dollars,  I  believe),  or  laying  them  down  in  that 
hole — ay,  throwing  them  down  from  above,  if  they  have  not  hands 
enough  to  carry  or  lift  them  down — one  man  following  afterward 
on  a  ladder,  which  is  let  down  into  the  pit,  to  stretch  the  body 
out,  not  for  the  sake  of  the  dead,  but  that  it  may  occupy  as  little 
room  as  possible.  I  witnessed  this  proceeding  several  times,  and 
shall  never  forget  the  impression  it  made  upon  me. 

Right  opposite  the  Roman  Catholic  burial-ground,  there  is  also 
a  Portestant  burial-place,  but  without  this  dreadful  pit.  Simple 
stones  or  wooden  crosses  stand  at  the  head  of  the  dead,  and  no 
such  dreadful  spot — dreadful,  though  it  have  for  its  back-ground 
the  blue  Pacific  ocean  and  the  snow-decked  Cordilleras — sickens 
the  heart  of  the  beholder. 

A  great  many  sailors  especially  lie  buried  here,  and  I  noticed 
some  humorous  verses  upon  some  of  the  graves.  For  instance, 
the  inscription  of  Isaak  Tickell's  last  lodging  of  H.  M.  ship  "  Pres- 
ident," ran  thus  : 

"  Shipmates  all,  my  cruise  is  up, 
My  body's  moored  at  rest, 
My  soul  is — where  1 — aloft  of  course, 
Rejoicing  with  the  blest !" 

On  going  home  at  night,  after  visiting  the  ground  burials,  I 
was  astonished  at  finding  the  different  watchmen  whistle  when- 
ever I  passed  one.  At  first  I  thought  they  saw  something  sus- 
picious about  me,  but  I  soon  found  it  was  a  rule  with  all  noc- 
turnal ramblers.  Wherever  a  person  passed  through  a  street,  the 
signal,  a  shrill  whistle,  was  given  by  the  nearest  watchman ; 
the  next  knew  through  it  that  somebody  was  about,  who  ought 
to  have  been  in  his  bed  by  this  time,  and  kept  a  good  look-out 
for  him  :  he  most  certainly  could  not  hide,  without  being  missed. 
The  police  in  Valparaiso  is  really  the  best  I  ever  saw  all  over  the 


132  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

world,  and  far  better  than  our  own  watchmen,  who  most  fre- 
quently sleep  at  night  from  one  hour  to  another,  merely  bawling, 
as  soon  as  they  open  their  eyes,  the  hour,  and  blowing  horns  or 
springing  rattles,  to  awaken  all  those  who  have  not  yet  heard 
they  are  awake.  Having  made  the  greatest  noise  they  possibly 
can,  and  given  warning  by  it  to  the  theives  about  that  they  must 
keep  quiet  a  few  minutes  longer,  they  squat  down  again  to  be 
out  of  harm's  way. 

The  calaboza  was  a  singular  place,  which  I  visited  with  one 
of  the  German  captains,  who  had  all  his  crew  locked  up  there. 
The  sailors  had  refused  to  work  as  long  as  their  mate  was  on 
board,  and  the  captain  had  them  locked  up  to  consider  the  thing 
over  again.  He  asked  me  to  go  down  with  him,  for  he  wanted 
to  start  in  a  few  days,  and  was  going  to  see  if  the  men  had  made 
up  their  minds  to  be  reasonable. 

I  never  saw  such  a  prison  in  my  life.  In  an  open  court-yard 
stood  a  quantity  of  wagons,  a  kind  of  caravan,  like  those  in  which 
wild  beasts  are  carried  among  us  to  fairs  and  markets ;  wagons 
about  twenty-five  feet  long,  and  eight  or  nine  wide,  open  all 
round,  but  guarded  strongly  by  thick  iron  bars,  and  in  one  of 
these,  really  like  newly-caught  animals,  the  poor  sailors  were 
sitting,  the  whole  crew  in  the  one  box.  But  they  would  not 
leave  the  place  to  go  on  board  again,  and  declared  they  would 
stick  to  what  they  had  said  first.  The  captain  had  to  take  them 
down  to  the  landing  in  the  wagon,  and  carry  them  on  board  his 
vessel  with  the  assistance  of  the  police ;  he  also,  afterward, 
reached  San  Francisco  with  them,  but,  of  course,  they  ran  away 
there  the  first  day. 

I  had  now  been  in  Valparaiso  fully  three  weeks,  waiting  for 
the  "  Reform"  to  come  in ;  and  though  I  had  every  possible  cause 
to  be  satisfied  with  my  situation,  as  T  lived  in  Mr.  Fehrmann's 
family — he  was  married  to  a  young  Chilean  lady — as  if  I  had 
been  in  my  own  home,  still  there  is  never  any  satisfaction,  if  a 
man  is  waiting  for  any  thing ;  impatience  will  be  always  the 
predominant  feeling,  and  a  restlessness  that  will  not  let  you  pass 
your  time  as  you  ought  to  do.  Besides  this,  I  would  not  leave 
town,  for  there  were  always  ships  in  sight,  and  each  of  them  could 
be  the  "  Reform,"  while  I  had  no  idea  how  long  she  would  stop 
here,  when  she  really  arrived,  perhaps  only  a  day  or  two,  and  I 
dared  not  leave  the  harbor,  for  fear  of  missing  her. 


VALPARAISO  AND  CHILI.  133 

At  last  she  arrived  one  fine  Sunday  morning,  and  when  I 
went  on  board,  expecting  to  hear  of  her  starting  to-morrow  or 
next  day  again,  the  captain  told  me,  he  did  not  know  if  the  ship 
ever  would  leave  the  harbor,  at  least  with  the  passengers,  for 
they  had  tried  to  take  his  life,  and  he  was  going  to  have  the  case 
tried.  The  passengers  for  their  part  at  the  same  time  said,  they 
were  going  to  sue  him  for  treating  them  badly,  and  insulting 
them,  principally  a  lady,  and  trying  to  starve  them  on  the  voy- 
age. In  fact,  things  seemed  to  be  in  a  pretty  mess  on  board. 

But  matters  soon  cooled  down ;  the  Russian  consul  (an  En- 
glish gentleman  in  town,  I  have  forgotten  his  name),  as  the 
"  Reform"  sailed  under  Russian  colors,  had  them  all  a  couple 
of  times  before  him ;  the  captain  agreed  to  lay  in  some  fresh 
provisions,  the  passengers  were  warned  to  behave  themselves, 
and  deliver  up  all  the  arms  they  had  in  their  possession.  And 
eight  days  afterward  we  sailed,  for  the  quarrel  lasted  so  long ; 
and,  I  believe,  it  would  have  lasted  even  longer,  had  not  those 
who  had  had  the  most  to  say,  been  the  first  to  run  short  of 
money,  and  having  no  dollars  left  to  spend,  they  now  wanted  to 
get  away  from  here  as  soon  as  possible. 

Our  passage  to  California  was  in  general  a  good  one  ;  we  ran 
out  to  the  west  from  the  first  start,  expecting  the  northwest 
winds  afterward,  which  were  said  to  prevail  in  the  higher  lati- 
tudes, but  north  and  northeast  winds  instead  set  in,  and  being 
carried  by  this  farther  westward  than  we  had  expected,  we  were 
taken  a  little  out  of  our  course.  Higher  up,  the  breeze,  however, 
became  more  favorable,  and  we  entered,  after  beating  for  about 
three  days  off  and  on,  the  Californian  coast,  the  longed-for  en- 
trance of  the  bay  of  San  Francisco,  the  so-called  "  Golden  Gate 
of  California." 


CALIFORNIA, 
CHAPTER  I. 

SAN    FRANCISCO    IN    THE    AUTUMN    OF    1849.  ! 

WITH  my  passage  through  the  Golden  Gate,  a  perfectly  new 
phase  of  my  life  commenced  ;  but  instead  of  giving  such  an  im- 
portant step  a  serious  thought,  lest  we  might  jump  head  over 
heels  into  this  new  chaos,  to  which  history  never  yet  had  fur- 
nished a  parallel — and  none  of  us  would  have  been  the  worse  for 
reflection — none  of  us  thought  of  such  a  thing.  Each  minute 
produced  a  new  and  ever- vary  ing  picture,  that  rose,  as  it  seemed, 
from  the  ground  around  us,  and  we  felt  like  men  who  have  sat 
for  long  months  in  prison  might,  and  then  step  suddenly  into  the 
free  and  dazzling  light  of  the  sun — it  is  a  very  natural  thing  that 
we  should  try  first  to  accustom  our  eyes  to  the  strange  light,  all 
the  rest  will  come  in  regular  succession. 

The  Golden  Gate  is  really  a  splendid  entrance  to  such  a  bay 
as  San  Francisco ;  it  bears  some  resemblance  to  the  heads  of 
Port  Jackson,  except  that  the  mountains  are  higher  here,  and 
the  country  looked  even  wilder  ;  but  the  English  reader  has  had 
descriptions  enough  about  it,  and  I  would  much  prefer  taking 
him  back  to  our  own  ship,  and  to  commence  with  me  the  new, 
and  if  wearisome,  most  certainly  wild  and  interesting  life. 

The  passengers  had  crowded  on  the  fore  part  of  the  vessel,  and 
we  looked  first  for  tents  and  huts  along  the  shore,  and  numerous 
herds  of  cattle  and  horses  gladdened  our  eyes — such  things  look 
well  after  a  long  voyage. 

"  There  is  a  tent,"  the  cry  suddenly  rose — "  there,  close  to 
those  little  dark  bushes  ;  and  over  there  again — there  is  a  quan- 
tity of  them  ;  that  must  be  a  town,"  and  with  such  acclamations 
the  attentions  of  the  new  gold-diggers  was  called  now  to  one, 


SAN  FRANCISCO  IN  THE  AUTUMN  OF  1849.  135 

now  to  the  other  shore  ;  and  an  hour  later  a  fresh  breeze,  and 
the  extraordinarily  strong  tide  that  flows  here,  carried  us  speedily 
up  into  the  bay  and  toward  the  hill  upon  whose  brow  the  first 
huts  of  San  Francisco  itself  already  became  visible. 

"  But  I  can't  see  any  body  washing,"  some  disappointed  voice 
cried  from  the  forecastle,  "  donner- wetter,  is  there  any  room  left 
on  shore,"  the  good  man  seemed  to  fear  he  would  be  crowded 
here  on  the  hills. 

"  There  are  diggers — there  they  are  washing!"  another  sud- 
denly cried,  and  with  lightning-speed  this  cry  was  caught  up  by 
fifty  other  voices ;  the  men  seemed  perfectly  happy  at  having 
already  found  gold-diggers  on  shore  and  with  them  a  kind  of 
assurance  of  the  reality  of  the  thing,  till  we  drew  a  little  nearer 
the  spot,  and  found  in  these  supposed  gold-hunters  a  couple  of 
quiet  cows,  which  had  been  looking  for  grass  instead  of  gold  in 
the  small  valley. 

But  San  Francisco  itself  now  attracted  all  our  glances  to  it ; 
there  to  the  right,  upon  that  flat  and  naked  hill  more  arid  more 
tents  and  low  wooden  buildings  became  visible,  the  hill  itself  yet 
concealing  the  greatest  part,  and  now — mast  on  mast — a  perfect 
forest  of  them  opened  at  once  to  our  sight.  Ship  after  ship,  form- 
ing a  perfect  town  upon  the  water,  filled  the  inner  bay,  and  hun- 
dreds of  little  boats  and  small  sailing  crafts  were  darting  every 
where  over  the  yet  unoccupied  places.  With  this  the  tents  and 
horses — riders  appearing  on  the  tops  of  the  hills — the  more  widely 
spreading  town — the  eye  found  no  time  to  take  in  all  at  once  the 
strange  novelty  which  surrounded  us,  and  we  stood  a  long  while 
perfectly  bewildered,  before  single  objects  in  our  immediate  neigh- 
borhood obtained  their  rightful  share  of  attention. 

Captain  Meyer  of  the  "  Talisman"  pulled  out  to  us  from  his 
own  ship,  which  now  lay  in  sight  of  us,  and  a  few  minutes  after- 
ward the  heavy  anchor  rattled  and  thundered  down  to  the  golden 
bottom. 

And  California  ?  I  really  do  not  know  where  to  begin.  It 
Deemed  as  if  the  old  tales  of  the  Thousand  and  One  Nights  had  be- 
come true,  and  an  indefinite  number  of  genii  with  their  golden 
bowls  full  of  diamonds  and  other  valuables,  must  spring  out  di- 
rectly, from  the  clayey  bottom,  and  offer  their  treasures  to  us. 
People  spoke  here  of  gold,  as  if  it  was  only  common  dust,  and  the 
price  asked  and  paid  for  every  thing  proved  it  at  least  partly  true. 


136  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

Only  to  go  on  shore,  a  distance  of  perhaps  one  hundred  yards, 
we  had  to  pay  one  dollar  a  piece,  and  every  thing  else  was  in 
proportion.  The  town  itself,  spreading  out  over  a  wide  area  of 
ground  consisted  of  hardly  any  thing  but  low  huts  and  tents. 
Fremont's  hotel,  a  small  two  storied  frame  house — which  by-the- 
by  I  never  saw  inhabited — towered  like  a  palace  among  its  low 
neighbors  and  these  confused  habitations  were  scattered  in  wild 
disorder  all  over  the  place,  facing  the  most  favorable  spot  of 
ground  only  respecting  those  roads,  which  had  been  marked  out 
for  public  streets.  The  beautiful  weather,  as  hardly  any  rain 
falls  throughout  the  summer  season,  had  encouraged  people  to 
take  nearly  any  thing  of  woven  or  spun  manufacture  to  set  up  a 
house,  more  to  get  a  partition  from  the  street,  than  for  any  other 
purpose.  Houses,  if  I  may  give  them  that  name,  were  raised  on 
the  lightest  possible  frames,  even  basket-work,  covered  or  stretched 
over  with  the  lightest  possible  calico,  and  colors  ?  what  a  variety 
caught  the  eye,  on  looking  down  such  a  street — the  blue  flowered 
cotton  had  not  been  sufficient  for  the  fore-part  of  the  house,  so  a 
red  square  piece  had  been  added  to  it  with  immense  stitches, 
while  perhaps  a  bright  yellow  pattern  had  served  to  cover,  to- 
gether with  a  striped  green  piece,  the  hinder  parts  of  the  wall 
and  complete  the  roof.  Many  such  huts  or  tents  had  at  the 
same  time  a  sign-board  stuck  before  them — for  the  house  itself 
could  never  have  supported  it — as  large  as  the  front  itself  and 
covered  with  immense  letters,  informing  the  public  that  the  in- 
habitant of  this  odd  little  habitation  had  a  store  for  the  sale  of 
nearly  every  thing  imaginable,  and  at  the  same  time  was  not 
improbably  a  doctor  or  dentist.  The  sign-board  had,  of  course, 
been  painted  in  the  States,  and  brought  out  here  to  astonish  the 
natives. 

But  the  new  comers  were  far  more  interesting  still,  and  I  soon 
divided  those  I  saw  sauntering  or  hurrying  through,  and  in  the 
streets,  into  three  different  and  very  distinct  classes.  The  first 
of  these  were  those  who  already  lived  here  or  were  naturalized 
to  the  strange  objects  around  them.  The  most  of  them  I  am 
nearly  certain  were  merchants  or  their  clerks,  who  went  about 
their  business,  quickly  and  without  looking  much  about  them ; 
they  knew  the  goings  on  of  this  strange  part  of  the  world  already 
and  their  time  was  money. 

The  second  class  of  the  new-comers,  who  have  landed  every 


SAN  FRANCISCO  IN  THE  AUTUMN  OF  1849.  137 

thing,  looked  about  them  for  a  fortnight,  fixed  a  day  when  they 
will  start  for  the  mines,  and  amuse  themselves  in  the  mean  time 
by  walking  about  the  streets,  with  their  hands  in  their  pockets, 
to  see  and  hear  what  they  can  during  the  short  time  of  their  stay 
in  town.  These  groups  stop  before  the  calico  houses,  and  laugh 
at  the  different  patterns,  come  to  a  dead  halt  where  they  see 
ironware,  lift  and  try  the  weight  of  the  pick-axes  and  spades,  take 
the  dirty  crowbars,  shaking  their  heads  at  the  same  time,  be- 
tween two  fingers,  rock  the  cradles,  the  store-keeper  has  put  as 
an  inducement  before  his  door;  and  one  or  two,  who  have  al- 
ready inquired  into  the  mysteries  of  gold- washing,  as  likely  as 
not  one  with  a  book  in  his  hand,  are  comparing  the  reality  with 
the.  description,  and  trying  to  explain  the  use  of  the  wonderful 
article.  Such  men  inquire  the  price  of  every  thing,  but  buy  no- 
thing, having  brought  all  such  tools  with  them  from  the  States, 
and  ask  the  prices  now  only  to  smile  inwardly  at  the  thought  of 
the  money  they  have  already  saved  by  not  being  obliged  to  pay 
Californian  prices  now  for  all  such  things.  They  also  enter  the 
gambling-houses,  saunter  up  and  down  between  the  tables,  look 
at  the  pictures,  talk  about  the  large  pieces  of  gold  a  gambler  has 
piled  up  here  and  there  before  him  for  a  bait,  even  risk,  but  in 
very  rare  cases,  a  single  dollar  on  a  favorite  card,  with  the  ex- 
cuse— we  have  come  here  to  try  our  luck — we  must  try  every 
thing  ;  but  losing  it,  they  leave  the  house  as  quietly  as  they 
entered  it,  to  visit,  perhaps,  an  auction-room,  with  the  same 
profit  to  the  owner  of  it,  stopping  the  passage  there  for  hours, 
without  the  least  intention  of  buying  the  slightest  article. 

The  third  is  the  working-class,  but  in  a  far  different  sense 
from  what  we  understand  by  this  name ;  and  these  might,  or 
ought  to  be  also  divided  again  into  two  different  classes,  into 
voluntary  and  astonished  workmen. 

The  voluntary  are  those  who  have  made  up  their  minds  to 
face  any  thing  ;  they  have  thrown  off  their  coats,  rolled  up  their 
sleeves,  and  got  at  it  with  a  will  to  set  up  their  huts  or  houses, 
work  on  the  road  for  Government  perhaps,  or  do  any  thing  that 
comes  within  their  reach — not  to  get  rich  in  this  way,  but  to 
get  their  things  in  order,  or  save  the  money  for  their  passage  to 
the  mines. 

The  astonished,  on  the  other  hand — and  the  landing  swarms 
with  them — are  those  who  find  themselves  suddenly  obliged  to 


138  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

work  here,  because  no  one  will  do  it  for  them,  while  a  single  er- 
rand costs  them  as  much  as  they  paid  for  a  month's  service  in  the 
old  country.  They  have  read  about  such  a  state  of  things  exist- 
ing in  California  as  they  really  find  it ;  but  believed  it  with  a 
face,  as  if  they  were  going  to  say  :  "  Oh,  you're  only  joking,"  and 
now  find  themselves,  to  their  utter  dismay  in  a  scrape,  and  don't 
know  yet  exactly  how  to  get  out  of  it  again.  They  stand  on  the 
shore  of  this  most  singular  country,  with  their  trunks,  boxes, 
chests,  and  other  things  around  them,  and  nobody  seems  to  care 
the  least  in  the  world  about  them  or  about  their  trunks.  If  they 
do  not  really  intend  to  stop  down  there  on  the  landing  all  night 
— and  other  boats  in  fact  are  already  pressing  in,  and  want  the 
room  to  land  their  own  baggage — they  must  move,  and  at  it 
they  got  at  last  to  toil  up  the  steep  banks  in  the  sweat  of  their 
brow.  They  do  not  pull  ofF  their  coats  ;  for  they  would  be 
ashamed  to  show  themselves  in  the  streets  in  shirt  sleeves,  and 
every  twenty  yards,  or  as  soon  as  they  meet  any  body,  they  set 
down  whatever  they  are  carrying,  wipe  their  red  hot  faces,  and 
ask  the  man,  who  looks  to  them  very  much  like  a  laborer,  to 
take  their  luggage  to  an  hotel,  looking  in  great  astonishment  after 
the  "  free  and  independent,"  who  most  likely,  told  them  "  to  do 
it  themselves,  if  they  wanted  it  done."  They  have  torn  their 
dress-coats,  and  knocked  their  silk  hats  into  all  manner  of  shapes  ; 
and  these  are  the  men,  who  stop  at  last  on  the  top  of  the  bank, 
setting  on  their  own  trunk  they  have  carried  up  here,  and  wiping 
their  faces,  perhaps,  with  an  embroidered  handkerchief,  murmur 
reproachfully — "  and  this  is  California?" 

To  form  an  opinion  about  the  country  itself,  merely  from  the 
first  wild  impressions — and  these  I  wish  to  give  the  reader — 
would  be  madness.  At  that  time  seventy  thousand  men  were 
supposed  to  be  working  in  the  mines,  and  San  Francisco  with  its 
environs  was  estimated  to  contain  about  twenty-five  thousand  ; 
but  it  would  be  just  as  easy  to  count  the  ants  in  a  garden,  as  the 
fluctuating  population  of  such  a  town,  and  the  inhabitants  of 
thousands  and  thousands  of  tents  scattered  through  the  interior. 

But  the  first  harvest  time  of  San  Francisco,  where  every  ar- 
ticle of  food  and  clothing  cost  nearly  its  weight  in  gold,  seemed 
to  have  passed.  Quantities  of  goods  lay,  even  without  a  shelter 
or  cover,  in  the  streets,  and  principally  on  the  shore  of  the  bay — 
and  in  the  auction-rooms  goods  were  sold  at  any  price — auction- 


SAN  FRANCISCO  IN  THE  AUTUMN  OF  1849.  139 

eers  only  wanting  to  hear  a  bid,  to  get  things  out  of  their  hands. 
I  saw,  for  instance,  a  good  lot  of  tea  sold  in  this  way  for  five 
cents  a  pound. 

Lumber  maintained  an  excellent  price  ;  but  every  body  had 
written  for  it  to  the  States  and  Valparaiso,  Australia,  Sweden, 
and  Germany,  and  a  number  of  ships  were  expected  with  it. 

Rents  were  extraordinary,  and  for  small  houses  or  rooms,  in 
the  business  part  of  the  town,  sometimes  five  and  six  hundred  dol- 
lars per  month  were  paid.  Restaurants  of  two  or  three  rooms, 
with  a  kitchen,  paid  from  one  thousand  to  twelve  hundred  dol- 
lars, only  for  the  month — and  so  on.  Even  to  deposit  your  trunk 
in  some  boarding-house  or  store-room  you  had  to  pay  from  one 
dollar  to  one  and  a  half  per  month  ;  the  man  who  took  care  of 
things,  as  he  called  it,  not  being  in  any  way  responsible  for  the 
safe  or  even  dry  keeping  of  the  things — you  might  just  as  well 
have  put  them  under  some  tree  in  the  bush.  But  what  matter 
to  the  gold-diggers,  they  had  left  the  whole  world  behind  them  ; 
and  should  they  now  hang  their  heart  on  an  old  trunk,  even  if  it 
contained  their  last  shirt  ?  No — away  to  the  mines  ;  in  one  day 
they  would  be  able  to  wash  out  there  the  value  of  two  such 
trunks,  and  where  was  the  use  of  wasting  a  thought  upon  it. 

A  stranger  could  see  how  things  were  thrown  about  as  soon  as 
he  put  foot  ashore  ;  there  were  at  that  time,  I  really  believe,  not 
ten  square  feet  in  the  city,  where  a  dirty,  but  in  every  other  re- 
spect perfectly  new  shirt  was  not  lying.  People  had  to  pay  six 
dollars  per  dozen  for  washing ;  and  new  shirts  only  cost  seven 
and  eight,  and  the  consequence  was,  every  body  bought  new 
ones,  and  threw  the  old  away,  which  were  three  months  after- 
ward picked  up  again,  principally  by  some  Irish  women,  and 
washed  and  sold.  But  a  good  many  merchants,  who  brought 
fine  linen  with  them,  and  were  not  willing  to  throw  a  shirt  away 
they  had  worn  perhaps  only  a  day  or  two,  put  them  by  in  some 
trunk,  and  sent  them — it  may  sound  ridiculous,  but  is  notwith- 
standing true — by  vessels  bound  for  China  to  get  them  washed 
there  for  a  mere  nothing,  and  brought  back  when  the  ship 
returned.  It  is  a  rather  long  distance  to  send  for  a  washer- 
woman. 

I  was  interested,  but  disgusted  at  the  same  time  at  the  quan- 
tity of  gambling  hells  and  tables,  which  pay  an  enormous  rent  to 
Government,  and  in  no  country  are  any  thing  better  than  a 


140  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

licensed  way  of  stealing  money  and  ruining  people.  How  it 
will  be  in  later  times  with  these  places  I  do  not  know,  but  they 
will  never  be  stopped  without  bloodshed,  and  the  people  of  the 
once  organized  state  will  have  as  they  once  did  in  several  parts 
of  the  United  States — to  lynch  the  gamblers  to  get  rid  of  them. 

But  in  spite  of  this,  they  are  most  excellent  places  to  study 
character,  and  I  have  passed  many  an  hour  in  these  well-warmed 
and  well-lighted  rooms,  among  a  crowd  of  people  who  were  pressing 
up  and  down  between  the  tables,  stopping  sometimes  where  a 
larger  pile  of  gold  than  common,  or  a  higher  bet.  attracted  their 
curiosity.  During  the  time  I  stopped  in  San  Francisco,  a  Mexi- 
can— who  are  always  the  calmest  and  seemingly  the  least  eager 
players,  entered  the  El  Dorado,  and  after  standing  for  a  time  in  the 
crowd,  wrapped  up  in  his  old  serape  and  looking  how  the  game 
went,  he  finally  pulled  out  an  old  linen  bag  of  dollars,  as  every 
body  thought,  and  put  it  upon  a  card,  and  from  that  minute  bend- 
ing over  the  table,  and  watching  the  fingers  of  the  gambler,  as  if 
he  was  tracing  the  blood  running  through  his  veins.  He  won,  and 
the  gambler  quietly  took  the  bag  and  opened  it,  to  count  the  dol- 
lars, when  he  turned  suddenly  as  pale  as  a  sheet,  for  the  bag  con- 
tained not  dollars,  but  dubloons.  As  he  had  not  money  enough 
on  his  own  table,  he  called  on  some  of  his  neighbors,  but  the 
Mexican  was  paid  directly,  and  afterward  left  the  room  as  quietly 
as  he  had  entered  it.  But  this  was  only  an  exceptional  case,  and 
hundreds  and  hundreds  lose  their  all  in  these  hells,  for  they  have 
not  even  a  fair  chance  against  the  gamblers  themselves,  all  of 
whom — and  I  really  believe  there  is  not  a  single  exception — play 
false  wherever  they  get  a  chance  ;  and  what  difference  in  that 
case  is  there  between  this  and  stealing. 

Those  various  representatives  of  nations  he  meets  every  where 
in  the  streets,  look  singular  to  the  stranger.  The  Californians 
themselves,  with  their  large,  gayly-colored  ponchos  and  their 
broad-brimrned  glazed  hats,  and  the  Chinese,  these  two  being  in 
fact,  the  most  prominent  among  them,  with  the  addition  of  the 
Mexicans  in  their  slashed  trousers,  white  drawers,  and  dirty  cer- 
agnes.  Frenchmen  from  the  southern  parts  of  France,  with  their 
red  caps  and  sunburnt  faces  ;  South  Sea  Islanders,  Malays,  Chi- 
leans, and  Argentines  ;  English,  Germans,  Italians,  claim  your 
attention,  and,  in  short,  every  native  on  the  globe  seems  to  have 
sent  her  representative  ;  and  here  and  there,  but  rarely,  you  may 


SAN  FRANCISCO  IN  THE  AUTUMN  OF  1849.  141 

notice  a  Californian  Indian  gliding  quickly  through  the  streets  to 
gain  open  ground  again,  looking  around  him  at  the  same  time  in 
dull  and  mute  astonishment. 

Thousands  of  these  different  people  start  daily  for  the  mines, 
partly  in  small  steamers,  which  had  commenced  to  run  to  Stock- 
ton and  Sacramento  only,  partly  in  schooners,  and  partly  in  small 
sailing  boats,  in  a  slow,  but  also  cheaper  way,  and  even  round 
the  bay  of  San  Francisco,  toward  Pueblo  San  Jose  with  mules 
and  horses,  but  those  only  for  the  most  southern  mines. 

I  now  inquired  for  my  luggage  left  on  board  the  "  Talisman," 
as  the  reader  will  recollect.  A  part  of  it  I  found  in  good  order, 
but  another  part  had  disappeared  ;  neither  the  captain  nor  the 
supercargo  troubling  their  heads  much  about  it  after  I  had  left 
the  ship. 

This  arranged,  I  myself  looked  round  for  a  conveyance  for  the 
mines,  and  not  wishing  to  pay  thirty  dollars  a-piece  for  a  passage 
on  board  one  of  the  steamers,  some  of  us,  all  passengers  by  the 
"  Reform,"  (and  a  motley  group  we  were),  determined  on  going 
in  a  large  schooner,  the  "  Pomona,"  which  was  ready  to  start  that 
very  next  day. 

On  the  19th  of  October  we  were  on  the  landing  at  the  appointed    -" 
spot,  to  wait  there  for  the  "  Pomona's"  boat  to  take  us  on  board 
her. 


CHAPTER  II. 

A  TRIP  TO  THE  GOLD  MINES  IN  THE  RAINY  SEASON. 

PUNCTUALLY  at  two  o'clock — I  don't  know  how  it  is,  but  we 
Germans  are  always  punctual — we  took  our  luggage  down  to  the 
shore,  expecting  the  promised  boat  every  minute,  but  obtaining, 
instead  of  an  early  start,  a  most  splendid  two  hours'  opportunity 
of  watching  the  lively  intercourse  on  this  place,  to  our  hearts' 
content.  Boats  were  every  where  coming  in  from  the  different 
vessels,  setting  passengers  on  land  with  their  luggage,  and  leaving 
the  poor  animals  not  unfrequently  in  the  nicest  kind  of  predica- 
ment— a  little  steamer,  that  had  come  from  Sacramento  having 
also  just  landed  some  sick  people.  A  cart  seemed  to  have  been 
already  provided,  for  it  came  down  from  town  for  them,  and  two 
very  pale  and  sickly-looking  men  were  put  into  it,  and  taken  up 
to  town,  perhaps  to  be  buried  in  a  day  or  two. 

"  You  are  for  the  mines  ?"  inquired  an  old  sunburnt  American, 
surely  from  the  backwoods,  for  he  had  the  entire  cut  of  the  face. 
He  was  going  to  pass  us,  but  stopped  on  seeing  our  "  fixings," 
with  a  singular  kind  of  fun  lighting  up  his  eyes — and  he  had 
cause  enough  for  it,  for  some  of  us  looked  sufficiently  green. 

"  Yes,  we  are,"  I  answered  him,  rather  abruptly,  but  the  man 
wras  not  so  soon  rebuffed. 

"Well  boys,"  he  continued,  giving  his  quid  a  turn  from  the 
larboard  to  the  starboard  side,  "  *  a  nod  is  as  good  as  a  wink  to 
a  blind  horse,'  but  if  you'll  listen  to  reason,  what  I  don't  expect 
you  will,  though ;  you  had  better  stay  here  in  town  during  the 
rainy  season,  which  may  commence  every  day.  If  you  go  up  to 
the  mountains  for  to  wash,  it  '  mought'  be  more  likely  you  would 
get  washed — you  understand  me." 

It  was  all  right,  but  the  good  man  was  wasting  his  time,  his 
counsel,  in  fact,  came  rather  late,  and  I  told  him  so,  that  we  had 
already  taken  our  passage  on  board  a  schooner  for  Sacramento 
city. 


A  TRIP  TO  THE  GOLD  MINES.  143 

"Paid  already?"  he  inquired,  pursing  his  brows  "and  on 
board  a  schooner — deck  passage?" 

I  only  nodded  to  him,  and  the  old  fellow,  without  saying  an- 
other word,  shoved  his  hands  down  into  his  breeches  pockets  as 
far  as  he  could  get  them,  and  whistling  "Yankee  doodle"  with 
all  his  might,  went  down  the  street. 

I  did  not  like  his  manner ;  the  old  man  had  most  certainly 
seen  a  good  deal  of  California,  but  what  could  we  do  now ;  at 
this  very  moment,  the  "Pomona's"  boat  also  came  alongside,  and 
taking  our  things  on  board,  turned,  of  course,  our  attention  from 
every  other  object.  The  schooner  lay  between  the  rest  of  the 
vessels,  and  on  a  spot  where  I  did  not  see  how  we  would  get  out 
again  ;  and  how  did  it  look  on  board  ?  I  thought  of  the  old 
American  already — there  was  no  room  even  to  put  a  foot  down 
upon  deck,  every  inch  of  the  gangway,  as  well  as  every  other 
part  of  the  vessel,  was  stowed  with  flour-bags,  lumber,  and  bar- 
rels ;  the  surface  of  this  perfect  chaos  of  things  crowded  at  the 
same  time  with  passengers,  who  seemed  to  look  upon  us  as  in- 
truders upon  their  peace.  But  what  could  we  do ;  throwing, 
therefore,  what  little  luggage  we  had  on  the  top  of  the  flour-bags 
and  molasses-barrels,  we  followed  after  them,  trying  at  the  same 
time,  though  in  vain,  to  look  out  a  place  where  we  could  pass 
the  night  in  only  some  degree  of  comfort. 

Our  anchor  was  not  weighed,  or  the  mainsail  set  till  sunset, 
and  I  felt  really  curious  to  see  how  we  could  clear,  in  spite  of  a 
nice  little  breeze,  all  the  neighboring  vessels.  And  sure  enough 
we  did  clear  them,  for  the  mate  ran  her,  after  we  had  made 
hardly  twenty  yards  headway,  right  plump  into  the  bowsprit  of 
the  next  bark,  and  before  we  could  get  clear  of  her  and  repair 
damages,  it  had  become  so  dark  that  there  was  no  possibility  of 
starting  that  same  night  again. 

This  was  a  fine  beginning  of  a  voyage,  and  I  was  only  glad 
that  the  old  American  could  not  see  us  here.  We  passed  a  mis- 
erable night — very  good  accommodations  for  deck  passengers  were 
promised  to  us,  and  we  did  not  even  get  a  place  to  stretch  our- 
selves ;  the  consequence,  of  course,  being  a  bad  dysentery,  very 
easily  caught  in  this  climate.  Next  day  we  started,  but  only 
covered  a  distance  I  could  have  pulled  in  half  the  time  in  a 
skiff,  yet  we  were  moving  at  least,  till  the  third  day,  when  the 
old  schooner  that  drew  ten  feet  of  water — while  the  pilot  himself 


144  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

said  that  we  could  never  pass  the  bar  of  the  Sacramento  with  it 
in  the  present  state  of  the  river — run  comfortably  aground  in,  the 
very  bay,  and  there  we  stuck. 

The  captain,  an  American,  but  one  of  the  worst  specimens  of 
the  nation — such  a  character  as  you  principally  find  on  the  flat, 
and  steam-boats  of  the  Mississippi  and  Arkansas — (his  name 
was  Peterson,  I  shall  never  forget  it),  swore  and  cursed  the 
whole  day,  from  the  very  minute  the  schooner  started,  to  the 
moment  the  sails  were  again  furled.  I  do  not  attach  much 
weight  to  a  slight  curse,  it  eases  our  hearts  sometimes,  and  does 
us  good,  but  I  myself,  and  even  the  sailors  of  the  schooner,  felt 
disgusted  at  the  low,  profane  fellow,  with  his  never-ceasing  oaths. 
He  would  not  give  a  single  command  without  such  an  addition, 
and  a  hundred  times  a  day — for  he  had  his  flying  jib  up  and  down 
five  and  six  times  every  hour — we  had  him  bawling  on  deck. 

"  Take  down  that  flying  jib,"  followed  by  a  horrible  string  of 
oaths. 

We  had  to  get  a  lighter  from  Benitia,  a  little  town  on  the  bay, 
to  ease  our  ship  off  the  bar,  and  lost  by  it  fully  twenty-four  hours, 
and  after  we  got  off,  Mr.  Peterson  wanted  to  take  the  same  freight 
on  board  again,  and  load  her  down  as  before ;  but  to  this  we 
objected.  We  seven  Germans,  and  three  or  four  Americans, 
told  him  they  would  never  allow  him  to  take  these  goods  on 
board  as  long  as  we  were  there,  since  the  pilot  himself  had  said 
we  should  not  be  able  to  clear  the  bar  with  them ;  several  of  us, 
besides,  were  very  sick  of  the  whole  affair,  and  the  captain  offered 
to  return  us  part  of  our  passage-money,  if  we  would  go  with 
some  other  conveyance  up  from  New  York,  another  little  town 
right  on  the  mouth  of  the  Sacramento  and  San  Joaquim.  We 
were  glad  enough  to  take  advantage  of  such  a  change,  and  soon 
found  a  boatman,  who  passed  us  with  a  nice  little  sailing  wherry, 
to  take  us  all  together  up  to  Sacramento  city  for  ten  dollars  a 
head.  We  quickly  agreed — the  man  made  one  hundred  dollars 
in  about  thirty-two  hours,  and  jumping  aboard,  had  the  satisfac- 
tion of  passing  that  same  evening  the  "  Pomona"  again,  lying 
high  and  dry  on  the  bar  of  the  Sacramento  river,  while  we  could 
even  hear  that  sweet  captain  of  hers  at  the  distance  we  were, 
cursing  his  mate  and  all  hands  on  deck. 

Our  captain  was  the  boatswain  of  the  "  Sabine"  a  full  ship 
which  had  come  out  to  California  with  passengers ;  the  ship 


A  TRIP  TO  THE  GOLD  MINES.  145 

being  owned  by  the  passengers  themselves  who  had  bought  her 
in  New  York,  loaded  her  with  provisions  and  some  goods,  and 
got  her  out  here,  after  deducting  their  own  passage-money,  nearly 
for  nothing.  She  now  lay  for  sale  in  the  harbor,  with  only  the 
captain  and  cook  on  board 

Ships  were  very  frequently  sold  in  this  way  in  the  United 
States,  old  tubs  thought  unfit  for  sea  long  before,  and  perhaps 
condemned  in  one  harbor  already — when  the  gold  excitement 
drove  poople  nearly  mad,  and  every  body  wanted  to  be  the  first 
to  pet  away,  were  painted  afresh,  received  another  name,  and  a 
couple  of  new  spars  perhaps,  and  away  they  went,  with  a  cargo 
of  passengers  and  provisions  round  the  Cape.  If  every  thing 
went  well,  they  doubled  the  Cape  and  reached  their  place  of  des- 
tination, but  many  of  these  never  in  a  condition  to  weather  the 
storms  and  rough  sea  of  those  latitudes,  and  a  new  coat  of  paint 
not  being  sufficient  to  hold  them  longer  together,  went  to  pieces, 
and  many  a  poor  sailor  or  passenger  has  had  his  gold  fever  cooled 
in  the  icy  waves  of  that  dangerous  Cape.  We  went  up  the 
Sacramento  with  a  light  though  favorable  breeze,  and  it  was 
pleasant  to  the  eye  to  see  the  beautiful  oaks  that  filled  the  river 
bottoms,  and  were  on  many  places  encircled  by  luxurious  vines 
and  other  evergreens.  But  the  bottom  is  not  wooded  far  inland, 
the  timber  stretching  only  to  about  a  mile  or  two  in  breadth, 
and  bounded  again  by  wide  and  perfectly  bare  and  swampy 
plains,  on  which,  however,  a  most  excellent  grass  grows,  and 
which  serve  at  the  same  time  as  lurking  places  for  the  elk  and 
grizzly  bear.  The  river  itself  is  tolerably  broad  arid  open,  with 
a  good  channel  even  for  larger  vessels,  and  as  it  is  cleared  by  the 
annual  floods  from  the  greater  number  of  snags,  boats  have  with 
only  a  little  attention  no  dangerous  passage  at  all. 

That  night  we  camped  on  the  bank  of  the  river  by  a  good 
roaring  fire,  there  being  plenty  of  dry  wood  about  there  to  keep 
it  up  all  night,  and  next  afternoon  we  reached  Sacramento  city, 
rather  a  proud  name  for  a  place  which  looked  at  that  time  very 
much  as  if  a  wandering  tribe  of  Indians  had  stuck  camps  there 
for  a  night  or  two.  From  the  river  we  could  see  nothing  at  all 
of  the  town,  as  nearly  all  the  trees,  chiefly  large  sycamores  and 
oaks,  had  been  left  standing  along  the  bank,  though  the  river 
itself,  at  the  same  time,  evinced  the  neighborhood  of  a  large  and 
busy  place  by  all  kinds  and  varieties  of  vessels,  which  lay  there, 

G 


146  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

some  moored,  others  stopped  to  land  passengers,  and  some  in  fact 
run  aground  ;  among  them,  two  large  full  ships,  which  must 
have  corne  up  here  with  very  high  water,  and  were  now  lying 
dolefully  upon  their  beam-ends. 

Taking  our  things  up  the  high  and  dusty  bank,  we  struck 
camp  just  above  town  on  the  edge  of  a  little  thicket,  where  we 
had  plenty  of  wood  and  water,  but  I  was  astonished  at  seeing 
the  busy  life  of  this  so  young,  but,  in  fact,  st>  rapidly  rising  place. 
Every  body  seemed  in  a  hurry  ;  carts  and  wagons  were  pressing 
to  and  fro,  bringing  and  taking  goods  from  and  to  the  river : 
here  a  party  were  loading  their  mules  for  the  mines,  there  an- 
other setting  up  a  tent  or  small  hut  to  commence  business. 
Wherever  a  man  was  seen  idle  in  the  street  he  was  sure  to  be 
asked  if  he  wanted  work,  and  even  the  schooners  on  the  landing 
paid  eight  dollars  a  day  for  taking  out  freight,  while  carpenters, 
and  all  other  artisans  were  offered  twelve,  fourteen,  and  sixteen 
dollars  a  day.  As  provisions,  and.  in  fact,  every  thing  else,  was 
very  dear  here,  we  wanted  to  get  off  as  soon  as  possible,  and  re- 
quired for  this  purpose,  before  any  thing  else,  a  mule  to  carry  our 
provisions  and  part  of  our  other  effects,  and  they  were  daily  in 
the  auction  mart  of  the  place. 

The  same  morning  I  went  into  a  drug- store  to  buy  some  lin- 
seed, for  I  was  not  well  yet,  and  felt  extremely  weak.  On  ask- 
ing the  price  of  the  linseed  first,  before  I  ordered  the  man  to  get 
it  for  me,  for  I  had  began  to  row  careful,  the  apothecary  told 
me  it  was  one  dollar  an  ounce ;  the  young  man,  with  a  beauti- 
ful crop  of  fiery  red  hair,  assuring  me  at  the  same  time  he  would 
not  get  up  from  his  chair  for  less  than  a  dollar,  so  I  did  not  dis- 
turb his  rest  any  further. 

Next  morning  I  went  to  the  auction  mart,  and  I  wish  the 
reader  could  have  been  with  me  there,  to  see  the  singularly 
busy  life  of  that  little  place.  In  one  of  the  widest  streets  of  Sa- 
cramento, the  houses  of  course  consisting  of  nothing  but  tents 
and  some  low  wooden  frames,  and  beneath  some  beautiful  old 
oak  trees  the  inhabitants  had  left  standing,  the  auction  was  held, 
which  lasted  from  early  morning  till  late  in  the  afternoon  every 
day  of  the  week,  except  Sunday,  and  collected  of  course  all  those 
who  had  some  business  as  well  as  those  who  had  none — only  to 
see  the  sport,  or  perhaps  hear  the  prices  of  the  different  things 
and  animals. 


A  TRIP  TO  THE  GOLD  MINES.  147 

At  several  spots  where  they  had  chosen,  the  large  stump  of  a 
tree  or  some  large  cask,  set  on  end  for  that  purpose,  lank  and 
lean  down-easters — and  you  will  know  them  wherever  you  find 
them  through  the  world — stood  praising  and  selling  with  nearly 
incredible  volubility  all  that  came  under  their  hands.  But  these 
had,  in  spite  of  that,  the  fewest  auditors,  for  the  greatest  mass  of 
spectators  or  buyers  formed  a  perfect  avenue  in  the  street,  up  and 
down  which  eight  or  ten  auctioneers  were  galloping  upon  just  as 
many  mules  or  horses. 

"Gentlemen,  eighteen  dollars,  only  eighteen  dollars,"  one 
of  them  croaked  in  a  hoarse  and  hardly  audible  voice,  for  he 
had  been  screaming  in  that  way,  for  the  last  fourteen  days — 
praising  at  the  same  time  an  old  white  horse  which  really 
seemed  to  be  only  held  together  by  the  saddle-girt.  "  Eighteen 
dollars  for  this  fine,  young,  excellent  horse,  gentlemen — shall 
I  say  twenty  ?  Only  eighteen  dollars  for  this  excellent  riding- 
horse,  gentlemen.  Only  eighteen  dollars,  with  saddle  and  bridle, 
alone  worth  thirty  in  San  Francisco  ?" 

"  One  hundred  and  thirty  dollars  for  this  fine  mule,  gentlemen," 
another  cried,  galloping  close  up  to  the  hoarse  one,  drowning 
his  voice  completely  with  his  own.  "  Only  one  hundred  and 
thirty  dollars — worth  one  hundred  and  eighty  or  two  hundred, 
gentlemen — shall  I  say  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  ? — hundred 
and  thirty  two — thank  you,  gone  for  one  hundred  and  thirty-two 
dollars,  gentlemen." 

It  was  in  fact  a  beautiful  mule,  and  was  sold  afterward  for  one 
hundred  and  fifty-one  dollars ;  the  price  of  mules  varying  also 
from  sixty  up  to  that  sum,  just  as  there  were  buyers  in  the  market 
or  parties  came  up,  who  wanted  to  start  soon.  The  horses, 
nearly  all  of  which  had  come  over  the  mountains  that  summer, 
looked  pitiable  enough — only  one  fetched  sixty  dollars,  with  sad- 
dle and  bridle — the  rest  were  nearly  all  sold  at  prices  varying 
from  twenty  to  thirty  dollars. 

Large  wagons,  commonly  drawn  by  two  yoke  of  oxen,  all  of 
which  had  also  come  over  the  mountains,  fetched  the  best  prices, 
as  they  were  frequently  sold,  especially  if  the  oxen  looked  well, 
for  seven  and  eight  hundred  dollars. 

We  bought  on  the  second  day  a  good  mule  for  seventy-five 
dollars,  and  packing  what  provisions  and  cooking  utensils  we 
possessed  upon  it,  making  a  load  of  about  one  hundred  and  fifty 


148  JOUENEY   ROUND  THE  WOELD. 

to  one  hundred  and  eighty  pounds,  we  started  on  the  27th  of 
October  in  good  earnest  for  the  mines ;  but  the  reader  ought  to 
have  seen  us.  Our  little  party  consisted  of  seven  souls,  and  a 
motley  company  it  was,  three  of  them  being  merchants'  clerks 
one  an  apothecary,  one  a  sailor,  one  a  locksmith  (the  locksmith 
and  one  of  the  merchants'  clerks  were  brothers),  and  myself.  We 
had  only  taken  with  us  what  little  luggage  we  could  not  do 
without,  but,  besides  this,  nearly  all  of  us  carried  some  kind  of 
weapon  or  other.  But  I  had  better  give  the  reader  at  once  a 
true  description  of  all  of  us,  he'll  get  acquainted  in  that  way 
with  a  great  number  of  such  parties  that  started  and  even  yet 
start  in  a  similar  way  to  the  mountains — for  gold. 

"We  had  been,  as  I  have  said,  seven,  but  one  of  the  young 
merchantmen  gave  up  the  second  day,  and  staid  behind  ;  the 
weather  was  too  hot  for  him,  and  he  was  not  able  to  undergo  so 
many  hardships  as  he  thought  we  would  be  obliged  to  do  from 
the  first  start — and  he  was  not  far  wrong  in  that. 

The  two  brothers,  to  commence  with  the  most  interesting  part 
of  the  group — Jews  from  Berlin,  seemed  not  to  have  had  much 
idea  about  working  hard,  but  like  a  good  many  of  the  new 
comers  thought  they  should  find  the  gold  easily  enough  in  the 
mountains,  they  wanted  at  least  to  make  the  trial,  and  were 
equiped  accordingly.  The  locksmith  carried  a  rifle  and  a  long 
hanger,  or  couteau-de-chasse,  at  his  side,  wore  a  gray  gardener's 
cap  with  a  large  peak,  a  leathern  belt  with  a  pistol  stuck  in  it, 
and  a  white  linen  bag  over  his  left  shoulder,  his  trowsers  were,  at 
the  same  time,  rolled  up,  and  his  coat  lay  with  the  rest  of  the 
things  upon  the  mule,  himself  going  in  shirt-sleeves. 

His  brother  sported  a  short  jacket,  rather  tight-fitting  trowsers, 
high  water-boots,  and  a  singularly  formed  blue  cap,  with  a  kind 
of  china  button  upon  it.  He  carried  no  gun,  merely  a  hanger, 
but  as  he  buckled  it  rather  curiously  around  him,  the  weapon  was 
always  too  far  behind  and  too  deep,  and  really  seemed  more  for 
ornament  than  use.  Over  his  right  shoulder  he  had  also  swung 
a  kind  of  bag  with  some  little  things  he  wanted  on  the  road,  and 
as  our  frying-pan  would  not  agree  upon  the  mule  with  the  boiler 
and  the  teapot,  but  knocked  against  them  continually,  and  kept 
up  an  uninterrupted  clatter,  he  carried  that  in  his  hand,  which 
made  it  look  in  connection  with  the  couteau-de-chasse,  something 
like  a  species  of  shield. 


A  TRIP  TO  THE   GOLD  MINES.  149 

The  little  apothecary  wore  a  green  Polish  cap,  with  four 
corners,  a  strip  of  black  fur  around  it,  and  a  red  beard  below  it, 
carrying  upon  his  back  a  kind  of  soldier's  black  knapsack,  with  a 
rolled-up  blanket  laid  over  it,  and  a  short,  stout  walking-stick  in 
his  hand.  His  trowsers  were  also  tucked  up  half-way  to  his 
knee,  and  he  had  a  peculiar  way  of  holding  the  stick  in  walking 
far  away  from  his  body.  His  name  was  Kunitz,  the  two  broth- 
ers name  Meyer. 

The  fourth,  Huhne,  was  a  stout  young  fellow,  of  about  twenty 
years  of  age,  with  a  green  hunting-cap,  yellow  overcoat,  trowsers, 
and  half  boots,  a  striped  bag  over  one  shoulder,  a  rolled-up  blan- 
ket over  the  other,  and  a  double-barreled  gun  in  his  hand. 

The  young  sailor  wore  his  sea-clothes,  but  with  the  addition 
of  a  double-barreled  gun,  and  a  rolled-up  blanket. 

I  myself  wore  my  old  leathern  hunting-shirt,  with  hunting- 
pouch,  rifle,  and  bowie-knife,  with  a  Scotch  cap  and  high  water- 
boots,  and  also  a  small  pouch  buckled  round  me,  which  contained 
the  most  necessary  medicines  for  the  mines. 

Such  was  our  equipments  for  the  diggings,  and  with  the  mule 
among  us,  which  one  of  us  always  had  to  lead,  the  reader  may 
be  assured  we  formed  a  perfect  picture. 

During  the  first  days  we  met  with  not  the  least  accident  worth 
noticing ;  we  marched  slowly  along  a  very  dusty  and  extremely 
hot  road,  meeting  empty  wagons  arid  mules,  coming  from  the 
mines,  and  sometimes  horsemen,  who  galloped  along  at  a  rattling 
rate,  with  a  scrape  or  blanket  behind  them,  leaving  the  mines 
and  going  back  to  the  towns,  before  the  rainy  season  set  in. 
Sometimes  we  even  overtook  pedestrians,  who  carried  every  thing 
they  had  upon  their  backs,  trudging  slowly  along  upon  their 
tedious  track,  or  resting,  already  knocked  up,  under  a  shady  tree, 
with  their  spades,  pickaxes,  and  pans  by  their  side. 

The  third  night  we  reached  an  old  but  abandoned  camping 
place  of  some  Indian  tribe,  and  struck  camp  there  ourselves.  A 
really  romantic  spot  had  been  chosen  for  it,  upon  the  shore  of  the 
Sacramento,  many  signs  showing  at  the  same  time  that  the  tribe 
could  have  left  this  place  only  a  few  days  before,  perhaps  when 
the  Americans  came  and  set  up  their  tents  not  a  hundred  yards 
from  their  old  hearths  and  homes.  Down  on  the  river  there 
were  the  posts  yet  left,  upon  which  the  fishers  had  lain  with 
their  nets,  and  the  planks  still  extending  into  clear  water,  where 


150  JOURNEY  IIOUND  THE  WORLD. 

the  squaw  had  come  down  to  fill  the  drinking  vessels,  and  get 
the  water  for  their  acorn  mush.  On  the  top  of  the  bank  we 
found  the  round  stones,  with  which  they  crush  and  pound  their 
acorn  meal,  and  several  wooden  troughs  and  bowls,  forgotten  or 
purposely  left  behind,  rested  here  and  there  against  a  tree. 
These  brown  sons  of  the  plains  had  also  been  good  hunters,  with 
their  simple  bows  and  arrows.  What  a  quantity  of  deer-horns 
were  lying  on  the  roots  of  an  old  broken-down  white  oak,  and 
close  to  it  the  wings  of  a  black  and  powerful  eagle,  proved  the 
true  and  deadly  aim  of  another  marksman. 

And  where  were  the  Indians  who  had  chased  the  deer,  or  the 
squaws  who  had  cooked  their  meals  ?  Gone,  driven  away  from 
the  graves  of  their  fathers,  wandering  homeless  through  a  coun- 
try where  the  pale-face  had  disturbed  their  peace,  killed,  or  fright- 
ened away  their  game,  destroyed  their  fisheries,  and  threatened 
and  even  taken  their  lives.  One  year  had  been  enough  to  effect 
all  this,  and  the  Indians  had  already  ceased  to  exist  as  a  tribe, 
before  they  could  only  comprehend  what  fearful  consequences  the 
crowding  in  of  the  pale-faces  upon  their  lands  must  entail  on 
them  and  their  children. 

In  North  America,  as  well  as  other  colonies,  the  oppression 
and  destruction  of  the  natives  or  aborigines  was  effected  gradu- 
ally, and  was  rather  the  effect  of  time,  or  the  natural  conse- 
quences of  immigration.  The  children  saw  year  after  year  how 
the  strangers  increased,  and  found  themselves  thrust  back  from 
the  inhabited  parts  into  their  wild  homes,  the  game  growing 
scarcer  with  every  year,  though  the  whites  themselves  showed 
the  tribes  other  means  of  earning  their  living,  and  even  encour- 
aged them  to  gain  it  in  the  same  way  their  conquerors  did. 
Their  religion  and  habits  were  at  the  same  time  respected,  and 
the  pioneers,  who  went  first  among  them  and  settled  in  their 
boundaries,  had  to  act  with  great  precaution  for  their  own 
security  :  the  red  son  of  the  woods  was  too  powerful  in  his  own 
home,  and  the  squatter  feared  the  war-yell  of  the  enraged  warrior. 

But  how  different  was  the  fate  of  the  Indians  here,  the  cry  of 
the  new  El  Dorado  shot  through  the  world,  and  before  the  wild 
children  of  these  mountains  could  have  the  least  foreboding  what 
would  be  the  consequence  of  hundreds  on  hundreds  flocking  in 
and  searching  the  gulfs  after  the  "yellow  stones,"  their  land 
was  flooded  with  them.  From  all  sides,  over  the  mountains, 


A  TRIP  TO  THE  GOLD  MINES.  151 

down  from  the  north,  and  up  from  the  south,  and  even  over  the 
sea,  they  pressed  in  ;  the  natives  were  not  driven  back,  they 
were  surrounded  and  ruined,  and  while  the  whites  suffered  them 
to  exist  at  least,  they  robbed  them  at  the  same  time  of  nearly  all 
the  means  of  existence,  while  they  punished  the  least  crime 
against  themselves  with  death. 

But  enough  of  those  painful  facts ;  we  pity  the  poor  tribes 
while  we  can  not  save  them,  and  the  car  of  Fate  rolls  slowly  on 
and  crushes  them  beneath  its  wheels. 

On  Thursday,  the  30th,  we  passed  the  little  tent-town  Vermont. 
Feather  River  here  empties  itself  into  the  Sacramento,  having 
Vermont  upon  its  left  shore,  and  another  little  town,  Fremont 
upon  its  right,  the  small  tongue  or  peninsula  which  juts  out  be- 
tween the  two  rivers,  being  already  occupied,  though  the  yearly 
floods  are  said  to  cover  the  whole  strip  of  land  with  the  powerful 
swell  of  the  torrents. 

There  was  a  ferry  established  here  large  enough  to  carry  loaded 
wagons  over  with  their  teams.  That  same  night,  we  camped 
on  Bear  Creek,  following  up  Feather  River  now,  to  cross  it  farther 
above.  Next  day  we  crossed  the  Yuba  River,  which  empties  it- 
self into  Feather  River,  the  Yuba  also  being  a  tolerable  good  water- 
course, with  sufficient  water  for  even  small  steamers,  a  good  way 
up,  but  now  only  navigated  by  some  whale-boats.  We  could 
cross  the  Yuba,  however,  by  wading. 

Here  we  met  a  team  coming  down  from  the  most  northern 
mines,  and  a  German  was  with  it,  who  told  us  to  go  up  by  all 
means  to  the  Reading  Mines,  where  there  was  every  thing 
we  wanted — plenty  of  gold,  provisions  cheap,  and  several  very 
nice  families  had  taken  up  their  quarters  there  to  winter  in  the 
mountains.  The  distance  was  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles, 
and  we  could  do  it  easily  in  six  days.  It  was  getting  dark  and 
the  man  had  no  time  to  stop  any  longer  with  us,  for  he  wanted 
to  cross  the  river  with  his  team  before  night  set  in. 

We  held  a  grand  council  that  evening  as  to  where  to  go  to,  as 
we  had  fixed  on  no  certain  spot  as  yet ;  but  thinking  we  could 
trust  a  countryman  of  ours  who  could  not  have  the  least  interest 
in  the  place  we  might  select  for  our  own  winter  quarters,  we 
determined  at  last  on  following  his  advice  and  foot  it  really  to  the 
Reading's  ;  there  was  plenty  of  game  and  gold,  by  his  account, 
and  we  should  have  a  pleasant  life  in  the  mountains. 


152  JOURNEY  HOUND  THE  WOULD. 

But  it  was  a  singular  fact,  that  every  body  we  spoke  with 
about  the  mines  had  an  opinion  of  his  own,  differing  entirely  from 
the  rest,  about  all  those  places  we  heard  commonly  talked  of. 
Some  had  told  us  before  that  the  Reading  Mines  were  unhealthy  ; 
others  had  said  unhealthy,  no,  but  there  is  no  gold  to  be  found  ; 
and  this  old  fellow  gave  a  glowing  account  of  them.  Just  in  the 
same  way,  some  praised  Feather  River  up  to  the  clouds,  while 
others  gave  it  the  worst  name  of  all  the  gold-producing  streams 
in  California — who  was  right  now  ? 

Next  day,  therefore,  we  determined  on  taking  the  northern 
route  :  wre  crossed  Feather  River  by  wading  it,  and  camped  on  the 
other  side.  On  this  day  we  came  to  the  fiYst  Indian  village, 
built  on  the  banks  of  the  river,  and  consisting  of  at  least  thirty 
or  thirty-five  well-made  huts,  dug  half  in  the  ground,  arid  walled 
and  roofed  very  much  like  those  of  the  Mandan  Indians  of  North 
America.  The  huts  were  dug  about  four  feet  deep  into  the  ground, 
strong  posts  being  set  up  in  the  inside  and  the  middle,  with  raft- 
ers ami  beams  across  them,  which  were  overlaid  and  connected 
with  branches,  and  finally  covered  with  a  thick  and  well-beaten 
coat  of  earth,  which  wras  of  a  perfectly  round  shape  and  turned 
off  the  rain  completely.  Above  ground  they  rose  to  a  height  of 
six  or  eight  feet,  having  a  small  and  low  entrance,  through  which 
the  inhabitants  had  to  crawl  in  or  out.  A  hole  for  the  smoke 
was  left  exactly  in  the  centre. 

These  villages  look  rather  singular  through  a  quantity  of  cylin- 
drical, plait- work  erections,  made  out  of  cane,  about  ten  feet  high, 
and  four  feet  in  diameter.  They  serve  to  hold  the  winter  provi- 
sions for  the  natives,  and  generally  stand  singly  by  the  separate 
huts  to  which  they  belong,  sometimes,  though,  three  and  four 
together,  looking  very  much  like  a  kind  of  watch-tower,  scattered 
through  the  camp.  At  the  entrance  of  a  great  many  huts  we 
found  squaws  sitting,  with  large  piles  of  roasted  acorns  spread 
out  on  a  blanket,  by  their  side,  while  they  were  cracking  the 
hard  shell  of  the  acorn  with  their  ivory  teeth,  dropping  the  kernel 
without  touching  it  with  their  lips,  into  a  piece  of  cloth  upon  their 
laps,  and  throwing  the  shell  away.  The  dress  of  the  women 
consisted  of  a  blanket  thrown  round  the  shoulders,  and  a  short 
but  thick  kind  of  mat,  or  rather  apron,  made  out  of  reeds  or 
rushes.  The  men  on  the  contrary,  sported  nearly  every  fashion 
in  the  world  ;  some  were  entirely  naked  without  even  a  waist- 


A  TRIP  TO  THE  GOLD  MINKS.  163 

coat,  merely  with  some  ornament  in  the  hair,  others  had  a  blanket 
wrapped  around  them,  while  others  again  wore  a  perfectly  Eu- 
ropean dress  with  every  thing  belonging  to  it,  except  shoes.  Their 
national  ornaments  seemed  to  be  of  a  very  simple  kind  :  they  all 
had,  both  men  and  women,  their  ears  pierced,  and  wore  in  these 
a  simple  piece  of  wood  or  quill  ornament  and  painted.  They  also 
tattoo,  but  I  only  saw  a  few  of  them  with  these  marks,  and  then 
on  the  chin,  only,  with  fine  blue  stripes  running  down  from  the 
corners  of  the  mouth. 

The  first  village  we  passed  seemed  very  thickly  inhabited,  or 
else  every  body  was  before  his  own  door  or  upon  the  roof  of  his 
hut,  where  the  men  were  principally  sitting,  and  seemingly  enjoy- 
ing the  warm  sun  with  a  great  deal  of  pleasure.  They  were 
nearly  all  naked,  squatting  with  their  backs  together,  and  appear- 
ing not  to  take  the  least  notice  of  the  white  passers.  Only  upon 
one  hut  four  fellows  were  stationed,  three  naked  and  one  wrapped 
up  in  a  fiery  red  blanket,  who  seemed  to  find  peculiar  amuse- 
ment in  our  appearance,  talking,  arguing  with  each  other,  and 
laughing.  The  women  were  nearly  all  busy,  diving,  though, 
wherever  they  got  a  chance,  away  into  their  huts  as  soon  as  the 
white  strangers  approached  them.  We  saw  a  singular  kind  of 
ornament  in  one  of  these  villages  ;  it  was  a  long  pole,  upon  the 
upper  part  of  which  five  or  six  very  well-stuffed  wild  geese  were 
fastened  just  as  if  they  were  running  up  the  pole  with  outstretched 
necks.  Not  speaking  the  language,  I  could  not  inquire  of  the 
natives  for  what  purpose  they  had  set  up  such  a  sign,  for  there 
was  no  wild  goose  hotel  in  the  neighborhood ;  but  what  I  heard 
afterward  of  the  tribe  makes  me  think  it  was  a  kind  of  national 
emblem,  the  favorite  animal  of  the  tribe,  and  as  likely  as  not 
that  from  which  the  whole  tribe  derives  its  name,  as  other  tribes 
in  California  are  called  cayotas,  and  also  in  the  Atlantic  States 
Wolves  and  Foxes. 

One  of  our  party,  the  oldest  Meyer,  poor  fellow,  got  a  dreadful 
tooth-ache,  after  we  were  a  few  days  out,  and  in  consequence  of 
it  a  swelled  face,  but  such  a  face  I  never  saw  before  in  my  life ; 
his  head  really  seemed  to  be  double  its  proper  size,  and  his  coun- 
tenance was  in  fact  most  doleful.  Tooth-ache  is  at  the  same 
time  an  extraordinary  pain,  and  whoever  has  suffered  from  it, 
will  know  it — with  some  teeth  cold  water  held  on  to  them,  will 
cease  the  pain,  while  others  can  not  bear  even  the  thought  of  it 


154  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

Some  teeth,  and  in  fact  the  most,  drive  you  nearly  mad  as  soon  as 
you  apply  salt  to  them,  while  I  saw  a  lady  only  very  recently,  who 
put  a  whole  pinch  of  table-salt  right  into  the  hollow  tooth  to  dead- 
en the  pain.  Some  teeth  require  you  to  hold  your  head  up,  while 
others  make  you  bend  it  down  to  let  the  blood  rush  to  it,  or  even 
stand  upon  your  head,  sometimes  in  its  worst  paroxysms.  This 
was  the  sort  of  tooth  Meyer  had,  and  the  mad  aching  seemed  to  ease 
as  soon  as  he  held  down  his  head,  perhaps  for  half  a  minute  to  the 
ground ;  and  as  much  as  we  pitied  the  poor  fellow,  it  was  some- 
times really  impossible  to  refrain  from  laughing  at  his  manoeuvres. 

The  wagon  road  led  right  through  the  third  Indian  village  we 
reached,  and  following  it,  we  entered  the  little  town  where  the 
natives  were  sitting  in  their  surly  silence  on  the  houses,  only  once 
in  a  while  throwing  a  dark  look  upon  the  strangers  who  pressed 
in  more  and  more,  filling  the  country  with  their  multitudes. 
Suddenly  right  in  the  very  centre  of  the  place,  and  surrounded 
on  every  side  by  the  crowded  huts — for  tooth-ache  never  cares 
for  place  nor  time — Meyer  had  one  of  his  worst  fits ;  and  with- 
out even  looking  round  to  see  where  he  was,  he  placed  both  his 
hands  upon  the  ground,  and  dropping  his  head  dfcwn  as  far  as  he 
could,  he  lifted,  partly  to  bring  the  upper  portion  of  his  body 
farther  forward,  and  partly  to  balance  it,  his  right  leg  as  high 
up  as  he  could  get  it.  The  cap  fell  from  his  head,  all  the  things 
he  carried,  slipped  forward  over  his  shoulders,  and  the  hanger 
had  caught  in  some  fold  or  other,  and  was  now  standing,  just  as 
it  had  hung  before,  right  upright  into  the  air,  increasing  of  course 
the  oddity  of  the  whole  figure. 

The  effect  was,  however,  extraordinary,  which  this  posture 
had  upon  the  at  first  so  indolent  natives.  At  the  first  moment, 
a  couple  of  women,  who  had  been  setting  close  by,  cleaning  a 
crous,  jumped  up,  dropped  whatever  they  held  in  their  laps,  and 
ran  as  quickly  as  they  could  into  their  huts,  and  even  the  men 
rose  up  suddenly,  looking  in  mute  astonishment  and  wonder  at 
the  extraordinary  stranger  who  presented  himself  in  the  heart  of 
their  homes  in  such  a  peculiar,  and  perhaps  hostile  posture.  The 
thick  red  face  that  now  became  visible  between  his  arms  and  just 
above  the  ground,  did  not  serve  to  reassure  them  ;  but  when  we 
ourselves  could  hold  on  no  longer,  but  burst  out,  in  spite  of  our 
compassion  for  the  poor  fellow,  into  loud  and  perfect  roars  of  laugh- 
ter, they  seemed  to  drop  every  idea  of  hostility  on  his  part,  and 


A  TRIP  TO  THE  GOLD  MINES.  155 

thinking,  as  likely  as  not,  the  whole  only  a  performance  the  kind 
stranger  had  got  up  for  their  own  and  sole  amusement,  they  also 
set  up  a  perfect  scream  of  delight ;  and  the  women  on  every  side 
coming  out  of  their  caves  again,  and  other  natives  jumping  upon 
the  nearest  hut,  we  were  surrounded  in  a  few  seconds  by  swarms 
of  Indians,  poor  Meyer,  with  his  dreadful  pain  and  desperate 
posture,  forming  the  centre  of  the  merry  crowd. 

At  last  he  rose  up  again,  greeted  this  time  by  a  perfect  cheer; 
but  he  was  not  in  the  humor  to  favor  the  grinning  savages  with 
another  performance,  which  they  seemed  really  desirous  to  have, 
but  throwing  a  wild  and  angry  look  around  him,  he  shook  his 
luggage  in  order,  and  traveled  on. 

That  same  night  we  had  a  small  shower  of  rain,  and  the 
clouds  began  to  look  rather  suspicious ;  if  the  rainy  season  really 
•set  in  now,  we  were  in  a  bad  fix,  and  so  it  turned  out.  We  had 
not  marched  three  miles  that  morning,  before  a  fine  drizzly 
shower  commenced,  which  grew  harder  and  harder,  and  set  in 
at  last  to  a  downright  rain  which  soaked  us  through  in  a  few 
hours.  Still  we  trudged  on  over  a  wide  plain,  fringed  by  the 
timber  growth  of  the  Bute  Creek,  which  we  reached  late  that 
night.  There  would  not  have  been  the  least  chance  of  building 
any  kind  of  camp  when  we  reached  the  first  tree  ;  for  it  was 
dark  as  pitch,  and  all  of  us  as  cold  and  wet  as  if  we  had  lain  a 
day  in  ice- water,  but  fortunately  there  was  a  rancho  here,  "  Neal's 
Range,"  as  the  Americans  call  it,  and  we  found  an  old  shed,  un- 
der which  a  party  of  Americans  had  already  camped,  with  a 
roaring  fire  on  the  one  side  of  it.  Making  room  for  us  to  lie 
down  at  least  on  the  damp  ground,  we  were  able  to  boil  that 
evening  a  cup  of  red-hot  coffee,  arid  stretch  our  limbs — our  legs 
sticking  out  just  under  the  drippings  of  the  roof — in  comparative 
shelter.  That  night  a  perfect  storm  set  in,  the  wind  howling 
through  the  gnarled  limbs  of  the  old  oaks,  and  breaking  down 
branches  every  where.  Toward  morning  however,  the  sky 
cleared,  but  Bute  Creek  was  so  swollen/ that  we  should  have  had 
to  swim  if  we  wanted  to  cross ;  and  not  being  in  any  such  hurry, 
and  rather  inclined  to  rest  a  day  and  dry  our  wet  clothes,  we 
decided  on  stopping  here  till  next  morning,  and  then  continue 
our  journey  to  the  Reading  Diggings. 

But  our  means  of  existence  would  soon  become  rather  pre- 
,  if  we  did  not  Kjverlilv  reach  some  mine  or  other,  and  be 


156  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

able  to  work  there.  A  part  of  our  little  company  had  had  no 
money  at  all  when  we  started,  and  buying  mule,  provisions  and 
tools  had  absorbed  the  rest.  Every  cent  we  had  in  cash  on  this 
very  day,  as  we  lay  here  under  an  old  crazy  shed  in  the  middle 
of  a  wilderness,  with  only  a  small  stock  of  provisions  left,  con- 
sisted of  four  dollars  and  a  half — about  eighteen  shillings — for 
six  men,  and  provisions  rose  during  the  rain  like  mushrooms, 
Here  we  also  found  several  parties  coming  down  from  the  mines, 
and  all  of  them  seemed  to  have  been  in  or  near  the  Reading 
Diggings,  and  gave  us  the  worst  description  imaginable  of  them : 
provisions  were  cheap  there,  because  every  body  left  who  saw 
the  possibility  of  selling  what  little  he  had,  and  though  there 
was  undoubtedly  gold  there,  it  lay  in  such  scattered  spots  that 
made  it  a  real  matter  of  accident  who  might  drop  upon  a  small 
quantity,  while  many  at  the  same  time — eighteen  out  of  twenty 
— worked  and  worked,  just  for  their  living,  while  it  was  even 
doubtful  if  they  could  make  that,  if  a  heavy  snow-fall  should  set 
in,  in  those  rather  high  and  cold  regions.  Another  point  was 
the  impossibility  of  getting  away  again,  if  winter  really  set  in, 
and  from  all  we  heard  now — and  which  was  in  fact  confirmed 
by  several  other  parties,  who  came  in  next  day — it  seemed  as  if 
our  countryman,  who  had  given  us  such  a  glowing  description 
of  the  place,  had  had  some  interest  in  getting  us  there ;  very 
probably,  a  quantity  of  provisions  he  wanted  to  sell  himself  on 
the  spot.  I  particularly  inquired  how  game  was  up  there,  to 
have,  at  least  something  to  depend  upon,  if  provisions  became 
too  dear,  but  in  this  we  also  found  ourselves  disappointed.  Our 
informants  had  lived  several  months  in  the  mountains,  some  of 
them  even  hunters,  but  had  not  met  a  single  grizzly  bear,  and 
very  seldom  deer.  There  was  no  dependence  on  that. 

But  what  to  do  now  ?  These  men  had  a  notion  of  going  to 
Feather  River  Mines,  but  they  would  not  advise  us  to  do  sor 
for  nobody  could  tell  which  place  was  the  best ;  but  the  Feather 
River  Mines  were  assuredly  the  nearest,  and  our  main  object  was 
now  to  get  to  a  place  where  we  could  earn  our  living,  as  there 
was  such  a  bad  prospect  of  carrying  out  our  former  plans.  In 
fact,  we  had  no  great  alternative  left ;  and  therefore  determined, 
after  a  hurriedly-held  council,  on  giving  up  the  Reading-  Mines, 
and  starting  direct  for  Feather  River.  To  do  this  we  had,  how- 
ever, to  retrace  our  steps  about  ten  miles,  and  then  strike  over  to 


A  TRIP  TO  THE  GOLD  MINES,  157 

Feather  River  again,  and  cross  this  stream  rather  higher  up  than 
we  had  done  the  previous  time. 

But  it  seemed  as  if  we  should  not  get  away  so  quickly  from 
Bute  Creek  as  we  thought ;  for  the  second  day  we  could  not 
find  our  mule  till  late  in  the  afternoon,  and  the  third  and  fourth 
day  it  rained  again  as  if  the  skies  had  sprung  a  leak,  which  could 
not  be  stopped  in  any  way. 

On  Wednesday  forenoon,  when  the  rain  was  pouring  down  in 
torrents,  the  road  consisting,  in  fact,  of  nothing  else  but  a  solid 
bed  of  mud,  ankle-deep,  with  holes  in  it,  where  the  mules  sank 
down  sometimes  to  their  girths,  two  wagons  with  emigrants  came 
down  the  road,  and  in  fact,  right  across  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
who  had  left  the  States  on  the  1st  of  May.  The  poor  people 
were  from  Missouri ;  and  as  they  had  lost  all  their  animals  but 
four  on  the  road,  they  had  to  leave  the  greater  part  of  their  pro- 
visions and  goods  behind,  to  reach  in  safety  a  warmer  climate, 
before  the  winter  snows  set  in,  and  buried  them  in  the  icy  heights. 
I  felt  truly  sorry  for  the  poor  children  (the  mother  lay  sick  in  the 
first  wagon),  the  poor  things  wet  to  the  skin  and  shivering ;  in 
fact,  were  obliged  to  wade  through  mud  and  water  behind  the 
vehicle,  as  the  two  half-starved  oxen  were  not  able  to  drag  any 
additional  weight.  The  men  stopped  their  wagons  not  far  from 
our  fire,  to  go  into  the  house  and  inquire  the  road,  and  perhaps 
also  to  take  a  horn  (a  single  dram,  cost  fifty  cents,  or  two  shil- 
lings), and  the  little  ones  came  round  our  fire  to  warm  themselves. 
They  were  a  boy  of  about  eleven,  and  a  girl  of  nine,  and  an- 
other one  of  about  seven  years  of  age  ;  and  as  we  fortunately  had 
some  boiling  water,  I  quickly  made  them  a  cup  of  coffee,  which 
seemed  to  do  them  at  least  some  little  good. 

When  I  expressed  my  pity  for  them,  an  American,  who  was 
standing  by,  remarked  the  children  would  not  find  it  so  great  a 
hardship  as  the  parents  did,  as  they  frequently  were  used  to  such 
a  life  in  their  own  country,  where  they  had  to  go,  sometimes  in 
the  worst  kind  of  weather,  four  or  five  miles  to  school.  The 
smallest  of  the  children  looked  wistfully  up  into  his  face  while 
he  was  speaking,  and  then  said,  with  a  deep  sigh  : 

"  Yes  ;  but  when  we  came  home  in  the  evening,  mamma  had 
a  warm  dress  for  us,  and  on  the  hearth  we  found  warm  food  and 
hot  coffee." 

A  couple  of  clear  tears  rose  up  into  the  poor  little  creature's 


158  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

eyes,  when  she  thought  of  the  scattered  household  gods  of  her 
own  home  ;  but  she  struggled  manfully  against  the  weakness, 
child  as  she  was,  and  seemed  to  be  ashamed  of  it,  for  she  only 
held  down  her  little  head,  while  spreading  her  cold  and  tiny 
hands  before  the  blazing  flame. 

And  gold — vile  gold  alone — had  driven  this  man  from  his 
peaceful  home,  exposing  his  family  to  all  the  dangers  and  hard- 
ships of  such  a  long  and  tedious  journey — to  the  burning  sun  and 
the  fevers  of  the  plains,  the  icy  winds  and  dangers  of  the  snowy 
mountains.  At  the  same  time,  he  was  not  leaving  a  country 
where  he  had  to  toil  on  steadily  in  the  sweat  of  his  brow,  under 
a  hateful  government  perhaps,  or  held  in  poverty  by  an  over- 
burdened population ;  but  he  had  quitted  a  free  and  happy 
country,  where  every  man,  without  overworking  himself,  could 
earn  his  living,  and  see  his  children  grow  up  around  him  in 
peace  and  plenty  :  and  if  his  wife,  who  lay  sick  in  the  cold  and 
damp  wagon,  died  on  the  road  or  in  this  country,  could  he  ever 
again  look  his  children  in  the  face,  whose  mother  he  had  killed  ? 
Could  he  ever  be  happy  again  ? 

Thousands  of  families  have  crossed  the  plains  and  Rocky 
Mountains,  under  similar  circumstances,  in  hardship  and  misery, 
and  hundreds  of  them  were  even  now  shut  up  in  the  snow, 
working  away  for  their  lives,  only  to  reach  the  wet  and  swampy 
low  lands  ;  perfectly  willing  to  brave  any  thing  they  might  meet 
there,  that  they  might  not  starve  and  be  frozen  to  death  in  those 
icy  regions.  And  even  before  they  reached  the  mountains,  many 
families  lost  their  father  and  leader,  or  the  children  their  mother, 
the  parents  their  offspring  they  had  started  with  in  pride  and 
hope  ;  and  travelers  from  there  told  me  there  were  parts  of  thoso 
plains  where  a  man  could  never  miss  the  road  to  the  mines,  if  he 
only  followed  the  graves. 

That  night  we  had  to  hunt  up  our  mule  again ;  and  the 
younger  Meyer,  who  really  could  not  find  his  way  through  the 
woods  for  a  hundred  yards,  succeeded — though  I  really  could  not 
comprehend  how — in  losing  himself  not  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from 
our  camp,  in  an  open  plain,  though  he  had  not  left  the  trees  be- 
neath whose  shade  the  rancho  stood  more  than  about  four  hun- 
dred yards.  "Without  even  a  blanket,  and  not  able  of  course  to 
kindle  a  fire,  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  running  all  night  round  a 
tree,  to  keep  himself  warm  and  alive, 


A  TRIP  TO  THE  GOLD  MINES.  159 

On  Thursday  morning  we  left  this  range,  to  strike  to  Feather 
River,  and  a  bad  and  tedious  march  we  had  of  it.  On  the  road 
I  tried  to  get  within  shooting  distance  of  some  herds  of  antelopes, 
but  in  vain ;  they  were  exceedingly  shy  and  wild,  and  on  the 
open  plain,  without  even  the  smallest  bush  to  hide  and  creep  up 
to  them  ;  they  had  their  sentinels  posted  in  every  direction,  and 
at  the  first  sight  of  man  fled  in  wild  disorder  toward  the  mount- 
ains. I  only  shot  a  cayota,  one  of  the  little  Californian  wolves ; 
but  could,  of  course,  do  nothing  with  it.  It  measured  about  four 
feet,  to  the  end  of  the  bushy  tail. 

That  night  we  camped  on  the  banks  of  Feather  River  in  a 
miserable  spot,  some  of  our  party  had  chosen,  while  two  of  us 
had  been  out  looking  for  antelopes.  They  had  even  collected  no 
wood,  except  some  green  twigs,  with  which  to  boil  a  little  water 
and  smoke  our  eyes  out.  But  here  wre  entered  for  the  first  time 
the  real  mines ;  little  tents  and  bush-covered  huts  every  where 
met  our  sight,  and  when  night  set  in,  from  all  the  slopes  of  the 
hills,  from  out  the  valleys,  and  from  the  banks  of  the  river,  glit- 
tered through  the  darkness,  and  here  and  there  large  fires  blazed 
up,  showing  the  different  places  where  the  gold-searching  popu- 
lation of  the  El  Dorado  had  struck  camp  and  dreamt  their  golden 
dreams.  Though  it  rained  that  night  again,  as  if  heave-n's  gates 
were  opened,  we  did  not  grumble,  for  had  we  not  reached  the 
mines  at  last,  and  was  not  the  rest  now,  in  comparison  with  all 
the  hardships  we  had  suffered,  mere  child's  play  ?  We  all  re- 
garded the  rain  that  night  as  if  it  belonged  to  the  first  impression 
of  the  gold  district,  but  I  could  not  help  thinking  of  the  old 
American,  who  had  spoken  to  me  when  we  were  awaiting  the 
"  Pomona's"  boat,  and  said  we  were  going  to  the  mines  to  wash, 
though  we  had  the  probability  of  getting  washed  instead — and 
how  true  had  the  old  fellow's  words  turned  out  ?  I  fancied  I  saw 
him  whistle  down  the  streets,  with  his  hands,  or  rather  his  arms 
in  his  pockets,  up  to  his  very  elbows. 

Next  morning  we  were  perfectly  benumed  with  cold  and  wet ; 
at  the  same  time,  as  our  fire  had  been  entirely  put  out  by  the 
rain,  we  could  not  even  boil  a  cup  of  coffee,  and  determined  on 
crossing  the  river  before  breakfast,  leaving  that  for  the  other  side 
of  the  stream,  if  the  weather  cleared  up  a  little.  At  this  part 
of  the  mines — the  little  place  was  called,  Long's  Store — they  had 
told  us  we  should  find  a  ferry,  and  so  we  did,  but  a  singular-look- 


160  JOURNEY  EOUND  THE  WORLD, 

ing  concern  it  was  to  go  on  board  of.  The  ferry  consisted,  in 
fact,  of  nothing  else  but  a  simple  wagon-body  from  some  of  the 
old  Illinois  or  Indiana  wagons,  caulked  and  pitched  as  well  as 
possible,  and  just  able  to  carry  four  persons,  but  hardly  their  bag- 
gage. Four  of  us  had  to  go  over  first,  paying  a  quarter  of  a  dol- 
lor  a-head,  then  driving  the  mule  in,  it  crossed  in  good  style,  and 
after  this  I  followed  with  the  young  sailor  and  our  baggage  to 
bring  up  the  rear.  As  the  stream  was  here  hemmed  in  by  high 
and  mighty  rocks,  a  powerful  current  shot  through  the  narrow 
valley  with  dangerous  speed,  and  our  craft  was  not  in  a  fit  state 
to  give  us  a  great  deal  of  confidence,  but  each  of  us  squatting  in 
a  corner  and  keeping  her  as  quiet  as  possible  and  in  good  trim, 
while  the  boatman  himself  in  the  third,  and  the  baggage  in  the 
fourth  made  up  the  balance,  we  pushed  her  out  in  the  stream 
and  the  ferryman  began  paddling  with  all  his  might.  All  at 
once  the  water  came  oozing  in,  and  we  had  not  left  the  shore 
more  than  about  fifteen  yards,  when  it  came  in  with  a  rush. 

"  She  has  sprung  a  leak,"  said  our  oarsman  dryly,  and  being 
used  to  it,  I  expect,  he  at  the  same  time  pulled  her  round  with 
much  dexterity,  and  ran  her  back  upon  a  flat  rock  right  below, 
which  had  served  him,  I  am  sure,  many  a  time  as  a  safe  moor- 
irig-place.  We  had  to  bail  her  out  now,  and  stuffing  some  old 
rags  he  carried  with  him  for  the  purpose  into  the  leak,  which  was 
nearly  half  an  inch  wide,  we  started  again,  and  this  time  reached 
the  other  shore,  though  nearly  half-filled,  and  all  our  things  wet. 

As  we  paid  one  dollar  and  a  half  for  ferrying,  and  had  been 
obliged  to  buy  some  salt  and  fresh  meat  at  Neal's  range,  we  had 
here — when  we  reached  the  other  bank  of  the  Feather  River — e 
pluribus  unum — -just  one  dollar  left  in  cash.  One  dollar  left  to 
keep  six  strong,  healthy  men  alive — there  was  a  prospect  for  a 
cashier.  But  what  matter,  were  we  not  in  the  mines,  had  we 
not  provisions  for  several  days  yet,  and  where  was  there  a  cause 
to  be  disheartened  ?  The  rain,  however,  was  disagreeable  ;  it 
poured  down  all  day,  and  hearing  of  some  beautiful  timber  a  little 
way  farther  up  the  river,  where  we  could  build  a  small  hut  or 
shanty,  and  cover  it  with  split  boards,  we  determined  on  trying 
to  reach  that  part  of  the  country  as  quickly  as  possible  to  get  at 
least  under  shelter,  and  be  no  longer  exposed  to  a  continually 
drenching  rain. 

On  reaching  the  top  of  the  hill  we  found  an  old  Pensylvanian, 


A  TRIP  TO  THE  GOLD  MINES.  161 

who  showed  the  first  gold.  He  and  his  daughter  had  been  wash- 
ing the  day  before  and  cleared  nearly  an  ounce — as  he  said — and 
he  thought  the  prospects  in  this  quarter  of  the  world  very  good. 
Down  on  the  river  we  could  also  see  several  men  at  work,  rock- 
ing away  at  their  cradles,  and  digging  and  picking  the  hard 
ground.  The  people  led  a  busy  life,  and  they  seemed  well  satis- 
fied with  it,  though  I  must  confess  I  had  thought  it  rather  differ- 
ent from  what  I  found  it.  Still  it  was  only  a  first  commence- 
ment, and  gave  little  cause  for  grumbling  as  yet. 

Next  day  we  had  some  better  weather,  and  as  it  was  Sunday, 
we  thought  there  would  be  no  work  going  on  in  the  mines,  but 
the  late  excessive  wet  made  the  gold-finders  stick  to  their  cradles 
the  first  fair  day  they  got  to  make  up  for  lost  time,  and  they 
were  busy  as  bees  along  the  whole  bank  of  the  stream.  We  saw 
them  only  at  work  along  the  banks  of  the  little  river,  or  in  gravel- 
beds  forming  little  islands  in  the  low  water.  Throwing  off  the 
gravel  till  they  came  to  a  certain  depth,  they  carried  all  this 
gravel,  which  contained  some  clayey  ground  to  their  cradles  or 
machines,  and.  rocked  away  ;  at  most  places  only  two  worked 
together,  as  they  had  the  water  for  washing  to  hand ;  on  some 
places,  I  saw  three  with  one  cradle,  and  on  a  good  many  spots 
only  one  by  himself,  picking  the  ground,  carrying  it  to  the  water 
for  washing  it  out,  sometimes  even  with  a  common  pan. 

But  here  we  could  not  stop,  as  we  had  no  tent  to  lay  under, 
and  were  not  able  to  pay  fifty  and  sixty  dollars  for  one,  we  were 
obliged  to  go  to  a  place  where  we  could  get  timber,  and  the 
next  day  found  us  among  the  beautiful  red- wood  of  these  mount- 
ains. But  provisions  had  risen  here  also  to  an  extraordinary 
price,  flour  was  severity-five  cents  per  pound,  pork  one  dollar, 
salt  also  one  dollar,  and  fresh  meat  fifty  cents  with  and  seventy- 
five  cents  without  the  bone,  and  nothing  else  to  be  got.  Never 
mind,  we  wore  at  last  on  the  very  spot  we  had  wanted  to  reach. 
Every  where  on  the  banks  of  the  river  we  saw  men  at  work,  and 
little  log  cabins  were  built  up  on  every  suitable  place,  therefore 
marching  up  the  river,  after  we  had  passed  the  last  store,  about 
two  miles  further,  and  finding  a  really  romantic  spot  under  high 
towering  pines  and  red-wood,  we  threw  down  our  blankets,  and 
struck  camp. 

Before  all  other  things,  even  before  getting  under  shelter,  how- 
ever much  we  needed  it,  we  had  to  try  to  get  a  cradle,  and  while 


162  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

one  part  of  our  company  went  to  work  and  washed  out  some 
gold  to  buy  provisions  with,  the  other  should  fell  trees  and  build 
a  small  hut,  to  have  at  least  a  dry  and  comfortable  place  to  sleep 
in.  As  the  rainy  season  had  set  in  in  good  earnest,  we  had  not 
to  look  long  for  somebody  who  wanted  to  sell  his  traps  and  quit 
the  mines,  and  since  we  no  longer  had  any  use  for  the  mule,  we 
made  a  bargain  with  two  men,  who  worked  a  little  farther  up 
the  creek,  one  a  Norwegian  and  the  other  an  American,  to  ex- 
change our  mule  for  their  cradle  and  tools  and  some  few  pro- 
visions they  could  spare.  I  also  stopped  with  them  half  a  day 
to  see  them  work  the  cradle,  and  get  an  idea  how  to  hunt  for 
gold,  though  the  whole  work  looked  to  me  so  strange  and  wild 
that  I  did  not  see  how  it  could  require  judgment  where  every 
thing  seemed  mere  chance  work. 

But  I  shall  not  tire  the  reader  with  a  description  of  the  wash- 
ing itself  or  the  different  tools  and  machines ;  all  this  has  been 
described  over  and  over  again  in  England,  and  is  far  too  monot- 
onous to  bear  long  explanations.  I  did  not  dig  myself,  for  being 
the  only  one  among  us  who  could  handle  an  ax,  I  went  to  work 
to  fell  a  large  red- wood,  and  split  some  boards  for  a  roof,  the 
other  five,  in  the  mean  time,  trying  what  they  could  do  in  the 
way  of  washing.  We  were  full  of  hopes,  for  the  least  success 
would  guarantee  to  us  not  only  our  existence  in  the  mountains 
through  the  winter,  but  also  a  good  profit,  and  perhaps — for  why 
riot  we. as  well  as  others — some  overgrown  lumps  of  gold,  of  an 
indefinite  number  of  pounds,  troy  weight — the  heavier  the  bet- 
ter. We  found  ourselves  very  much  disappointed  in  the  course 
of  time. 

It  rained  continually ;  there  was  not  a  dry  thread  upon  our 
backs,  and  even  our  blankets  had  become  soaked  and  afforded  no 
warmth.  Provisions  rose  of  course  accordingly,  and  when  the 
gold-diggers  came  to  camp  that  evening,  they  brought  with  them 
about  two  dollars'  worth  of  gold,  and  on  sending  one  of  them  up 
to  the  store  to  buy  provisions  with  it,  the  store-keeper  would  not 
let  us  have  flour  under  one  dollar  per  pound,  pork  at  a  dollar 
and  a  quarter. 

The  next  day,  Tuesday,  the  same  game — no  gold  found,  a  trifle 
excepted,  rain  all  day,  and  provisions  rising  again  a  quarter 
of  a  dollar  the  pound.  The  first  tree  I  felled,  too,  would  not 
answer ;  it  looked  well  enough  outside,  but  was  mouldy  and 


A  TRIP  TO  THE  GOLD  MINES.  163 

wouldn't  split,  and  I  had  to  cut  down  another  one,  but  the  main 
instrument  for  splitting  boards,  a  froe,  was  wanting,  and  I  had 
to  lose  half  a  day  in  running  about  through  the  neighborhood 
merely  to  find  a  man  who  owned  one,  and  even  that  we  could 
not  keep,  for  the  man  himself  expected  his  family  up  there  in  a 
few  days  (I  pity  the  poor  women  who  would  be  obliged  to  stop 
through  a  rainy  season  in  these  mountains),  and  had  to  set  up, 
of  course,  a  good  and  dry  house  first  before  they  reached  the  place. 
In  fact,  every  thing  went  the  wrong  way,  and  the  only  thing 
that  kept  on  regularly  was  the  rain,  which  came  down ;  while, 
with  equal  regularity,  provisions  went  up,  with  every  shower. 
At  last  we  had  not  a  single  cent  left  to  buy  even  the  most  neces- 
sary article  of  food,  and  we  would  not  borrow.  Our  meal  had 
become  smaller  every  day,  and  only  to  fill  our  stomachs  we  be- 
gan mixing  our  bread  with  a  small  kind  of  red  berry,  which 
grew  around  us  in  great  profusion,  and  tasted  well  enough.  As 
we  could  not  live  much  longer,  and  we  all  saw  we  must  come  to 
some  decision,  if  our  condition  could  not  be  altered  in  one  way  or 
the  other.  We  agreed  finally  that  the  next  day  should  be  deci- 
sive, whether  we  stopped  any  longer  up  here  (where  there  was, 
in  fact,  no  chance  at  all  of  provisions  coming  up  again  this  win- 
ter, if  the  weather  continued  as  it  was),  or  starting  back  for 
Sacramento  and  San  Francisco,  and  give  up  mining  altogether 
for  this  season  at  least.  The  gold-diggers  wanted  to  try,  there- 
fore, for  the  last  time,  a  new  plan,  and  I  myself,  as  there  seemed 
no  chance  of  getting  a  froe  for  the  next  three  or  four  days,  shoul- 
dered my  gun  to  take  a  walk  over  the  hills,  and  try  if  I  could 
not  come  across  a  deer,  or  perhaps  an  old  grizzly  bear,  and  get  a 
quantity  of  meat. 

Nothing  at  all  succeeded  ;  our  gold-diggers  got  this  day  less 
than  ever,  provisions  rose  up  that  evening  to  two  dollars  for  a 
pound  of  flour,  and  the  same  price  for  pork — the  store-keeper 
seeming  quite  diffident  about  selling  it  at  present,  where  he  had 
no  chance  of  getting  more,  and  I  myself,  upon  my  hunting  trip, 
saw  only  a  single  deer,  and  that  out  of  the  range  of  my  gun ;  I 
could  not  find  even  tracks,  and  the  hills  really  seemed  as  if  every 
particle  of  game  had  been  killed,  or  driven  away. 

Next  night  we  had  hardly  any  thing  to  eat,  and  it  rained 
frightfully  ;  but  if  we  had  any  doubt  what  course  to  follow  under 
such  circumstances,  some  Americans  who  passed  our  camp  early 


1G4  JOURNEY   HOUND  THE   WORLD. 

next  morning,  would  have  solved  it.  They  had  every  thing  they 
called  their  own,  which  they  could  carry  upon  their  backs,  leaving, 
as  they  said,  a  neighborhood  where  there  would  be  a  famine  in 
a  few  days,  if  all  stopped  there.  Again  we  held  a  general  coun- 
cil, and  the  result  of  it  was  that  we  packed  up  our  things,  and 
that  same  morning,  the  18th  of  November,  with  the  first  rays  of 
the  sun  after  a  short  delay  we  started,  heavily  loaded,  on  our  back 
track. 

But  we  most  certainly  did  not  intend  to  carry  all  the  things 
we  were  loaded  with  at  present,  to  the  low  lands  again,  therefore, 
on  reaching  the  first  store  on  the  hills,  where  a  Missourian  had 
commenced  keeping  a  warehouse,  as  he  called  it ;  we  made  a 
bargain  with  him,  and  sold  him  all  our  tools  and  part  of  the 
cooking  utensils,  the  younger  Meyer  even  his  rifle,  and  the  older, 
his  hanger,  for  cash,  and  went  on  our  way  with  a  very  light 
load  and  in  the  best  possible  manner,  down  into  the  valley.  We 
had  found  no  gold,  but  what  matter,  we  were  all  healthy  yet,  and 
had  seen  the  mines  at  least — the  next  time  better  luck — and  laugh- 
ing and  talking  we  clambered  down  the  steep  ridges  till  night  over- 
took, and  found  us  round  a  large  fire  and  a  splendid  panful  of 
most  excellent  dumplings,  Huhne,  a  very  good  hand  at  such 
things,  had  prepared  to  get  out  rather  weakened  stomachs  in  good 
working  order  again.  That  night  though,  we  tasted,  in  spite  of 
the  dumplings,  the  pleasures  of  mountain-life  again  in  bumpers. 

At  about  ten  o'clock,  it  commenced  raining,  arid  never  left  off 
for  a  single  minute  during  the  whole  night.  Next  morning  we 
had  to  get  up  in  the  rain,  kindle  a  fire  again,  and  cook  our 
breakfast,  after  which,  wringing  out  our  heavy  blankets,  rolling 
them  up  again,  and  slinging  them  over  our  shoulders,  we  march- 
ed on.  Next  night  we  had  to  lay  dowrn  in  the  soft  and  perfectly 
liquid  mud,  not  a  dry  spot  was  to  be  found  in  the  whole  neigh- 
borhood ;  but  it  did  not  rain  this  night,  and  that  was  some  comfort. 
We  had  our  worst  time  though  two  days  afterward.  On  reaching 
Feather  River  again,  the  banks  of  which  were  high  and  dry,  and 
comparatively  easy,  we  arrived — after  another  night's  hard  rain, 
which,  however,  we  passed  under  a  roof — at  a  small  slew  or 
branch,  which  had  now  grown  to  a  perfect  torrent,  and  ran  right 
across  our  path.  This  we  had  to  cross ;  but  finding  it  deeper 
.  than  we  had  at  first  anticipated,  our  only  chance  was  to  make 
a  raft,  for  the  purpose  of  dragging  across  our  things,  and  those  of 


A  TEIP  TO  THE  GOLD  MINES.  165 

our  companions  who  could  not  swim.  As  no  large  timber 
grew  there,  we  carried  a  parcel  of  old  and  half-burnt  logs  to 
the  water's  edge,  and  tying  them  together  with  all  the  small 
pieces  of  twine  we  possessed,  we  really  made  a  sort  of  raft,  which 
we  thought  would  carry  all  our  things.  We  worked  at  this  for 
about  three  hours,  the  rain  coming  down  at  the  same  time  as  hard 
as  it  could,  and  the  two  Meyers  and  Kuriitz  standing,  while 
the  other  three  were  wading  about  in  the  water,  and  carrying  arid 
floating  the  old  logs  shivering  with  cold,  and  ready  to  give 
up  nearly  every  thing  in  despair.  At  last  we  were  ready  for 
a  trial,  and  fastening  a  rather  weak  fishing-line  I  had  in  my 
pocket  as  a  tow-line  to  our  clumsy  craft,  I  waded  into  the  water, 
and  when  I  felt  it  getting  too  deep  to  walk,  cried  to  the  oth- 
ers to  push  the  raft  after  me,  while  I  struck  out  for  the  other 
shore. 

It  was  no  go  ;  the  logs  were  too  heavy,  and  sunk  under  water 
before  it  had  got  even  out  of  reach  of  the  young  sailor,  who 
wisely  followed  it  to  see  how  it  would  answer,  and  as  the  weight 
was  too  great  for  the  line,  it  broke,  and  catching  at  the  same 
moment  round  my  left  arm  and  both  my  feet,  it  was  all  I  could 
do  to  reach  the  other  shore  with  my  right  arm  ;  satisfied  at  find- 
ing that  they  had  at  least  got  hold  of  the  raft  again  on  the  other 
side,  and  were  pulling  it  in.  Swimming  back,  I  helped  them  to 
pull  our  soaking  wet  things  out  of  the  water,  when  our  sailor-boy, 
who  had  noticed  the  rising  of  the  creek,  told  us  to  make  haste 
with  whatever  we  wanted  to  do,  for  in  the  next  quarter  of  an 
hour,  we  should  have  just  such  another  slew  on  our  other  side, 
and  was  even  on  a  little  island  already,  for  the  streamlet  had 
risen  in  the  last  half  hour  more  than  six  inches.  Some  Ameri- 
cans who  also  wanted  to  cross,  and  had  been  looking  at  us  for  a 
good  while,  to  see  what  success  we  had,  hurried  back,  and  on 
reaching  the  other  channel,  shouted  to  us  to  make  haste  and  fol- 
low them,  for  the  log  we  had  crossed  over  on  was  nearly  under 
water  already. 

We  had  no  choice  left,  for  though  there  would  have  been  very 
little  difficulty  in  crossing  with  Huhne  and  the  sailor,  we  should 
have  had  to  leave  the  others,  and  not  being  willing  to  do  that, 
we  caught  up  our  luggage,  which  was  as  heavy  as  lead  now 
through  the  water,  and  turned  back.  And,  in  fact,  it  was  high 
time  ;  the  powerful  current  nearly  swept  us  away,  and  though 


166  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

we  att  leached  the  shore  safely,  we  were  all  but  dead  with  cold 
and  wet. 

That  night  we  camped  again  in  the  house  where  we  had 
staid  the  previous  one,  with  one  of  our  countrymen,  at  least 
under  a  dry  roof,  but  with  hardly  any  firewood,  and  the  reader 
may  think  what  a  night  we  passed.  Our  provisions  consisted  at 
the  same  time  of  a  small  piece  of  fat  pork  and  one  biscuit  apiece, 
eleven  of  us  crowding  round  a  small  pile  of  little  more  than  hot 
embers.  We  saw  the  effects  of  this  day's  work  next  morning ; 
for  the  sailor  whom  I  had  thought  the  hardiest  of  the  whole  of 
us,  and  who  had  complained  the  previous  night  of  headache  and 
drowsiness,  was  attacked  by  a  swelling  in  his  feet,  so  that  he 
could  not  wear  his  boots,  pain  in  the  gums,  indicating  at  the 
same  time  the  first  signs  of  scurvy. 

Not  being  able  to  cross  the  slough,  which  had  become  a  perfect 
torrent,  sweeping  every  thing  before  it,  we  heard  of  a  whale-boat 
which  had  come  up  Feather  River.  Some  of  those  staying  with 
us  at  the  hut  declared  their  intention  of  crossing  to  the  other 
shore  of  the  river,  there  being  not  so  many  sloughs  and  swamps 
in  following  the  river's  course,  as  on  this  side.  The  only  diffi- 
culty seemed  the  price  ;  the  Yankee,  who  saw  well  enough  that 
a  party  of  travelers  was  in  a  fix,  asking  two  dollars  per  head  to 
take  us  across.  We  had  to  pay  it,  however ;  and  taking  our 
sick  man  over  also,  we  walked  on  slowly  and  tediously  with 
him.  For  the  first  two  or  three  hours  he  was  able  to  walk  at 
least  by  himself,  while  I  carried  his  baggage ;  but  afterward 
even  that  seemed  impossible,  and  I  had  *to  lead  him  slowly 
along. 

On  Friday  we  reached  Captain  Sutter's  farm  on  Feather  River ; 
it  was  the  first  truly  cultivated  spot  I  had  seen  in  California,  and 
it  looked  to  me  really  like  home.  I  was  getting  tired  of  lying  out 
in  the  wet  every  night ;  I  longed  for  warm  and  clean  clothing  and 
civilized  nourishment,  and  the  tiles  on  the  roof,  the  window-panes, 
the  clean  and  open  yard,  with  its  plows  and  other  implements, 
the  homely-looking  curtains  to  the  windows,  and  even  flower- 
pots, recalled  to  my  memory  long-past  scenes,  which  rains  and 
flood  seemed  nearly  to  have  washed  out  of  my  memory. 

Fortunately,  I  found  Mr.  Sutter,  for  whom  I  had  brought  to 
California  a  chest  of  books  from  a  friend  of  his  in  Germany,  at 
home  ;  and  was  received  by  him  in  a  most  friendly  manner, 


A  TEIP  TO  THE  GOLD  MINES.  167 

though  I  looked  most  certainly  more  like  a  swamped  vagabond 
than  any  thing  else.  But  people  up  here  are  accustomed  to  see 
persons  return  from  the  mines  in  just  such  outrigs,  and  find  no- 
thing uncommon  or  extraordinary  in  it,  though  I  am  sure  if  I  had 
shown  myself  in  that  state  in  any  of  our  German  towns,  the  po- 
lice-officers would  have  taken  care  of  me  directly.  But  I  was 
sorry  at  not  being  able  to  accept  even  the  captain's  hospitable 
invitation  to  dinner,  as  much  as  I  needed  a  good  meal  once 
again  :  for  our  sick  man  did  not  allow  us  to  delay  any  longer ; 
he  wanted  rest,  and,  if  possible,  medicines,  and  the  sooner  we 
got  him  into  Sacramento,  the  better.  Captain  Sutter,  however, 
when  he  saw  we  were  determined  on  starting,  loaded  us  with 
provisions* 

Captain  Sutter  is  a  well-set,  stout,  and  healthy-looking  man, 
of  about  forty-five  years  of  age,  with  a  large  mustache — a  re- 
membrance of  former  times.  He  was  the  first  of  all  in  the  mines, 
in  fact,  who  had  power  and  provisions — two  extraordinary  things 
at  that  time — and  through  his  proximity  to  the  first  gold  mine, 
only  had  to  pick  up  the  lumps  as  they  fell.  He  owned,  at  the 
same  time,  immense  tracts  of  land  ;  and  part  of  them,  as  Sacra- 
mento City,  in  the  most  advantageous  positions  ;  but  being  too 
good-hearted,  he  was  misused  by  most  of  those  he  had  been  kind 
to,  and  he  commenced  having  his  troubles  with  the  land  ;  the 
American  squatters  settling  on  it,  wherever  they  thought  fit,  and 
caring  little  or  nothing  whether  they  were  in  the  right  or  not,  so 
long  as  they  kept  the  land.  The  state  of  things  was  far  too  un- 
settled as  yet,  and  the  transition  from  a  wild  to  a  civilized  condi- 
tion, far  too  rapid  and  unnatural. 

During  our  stay  on  the  farm,  the  younger  Meyer  was  taken  ill, 
or  at  least  attacked  by  weakness ;  he  fainted  right  down  in  the 
yard,  looking  for  the  rest  of  the  day  ghastly  pale,  but  recovered 
sufficiently  to  enable  us  to  continue  our  journey,  though  rather 
slowly  that  same  morning. 

I  really  do  not  know  how  we  should  have  got  on  during  the 
next  day,  for  it  proved  all  we  could  do  as  it  was  to  proceed  a  few 
miles  with  our  sick  man — and  he  became  worse  during  the  night 
— had  it  not  been  for  a  horse  and  cart — which  overtook  us  that 
night  at  our  camping-place — belonging  to  two  of  our  country- 
men, who  offered  to  take  the  sick  man  in  their  cart  as  far  as 
they  went,  nearly  to  the  little  town  of  Vernon,  on  the  Sacramento 


168  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

River.  Next  morning  we  helped  him  on  board,  and  were  able 
then  to  travel  as  fast  as  we  pleased  along  the  high  and  dry  beaten 
path  of  the  river  bank.  That  night  the  cayotas  favored  us  with 
a  perfect  serenade ;  they  howled  round  our  camp  in  a  most  dole- 
ful mariner,  sometimes  within  a  stone's  throw  somewhere  in  the 
bushes,  and  their  screaming  and  yelling  during  a  part  of  the  night 
rendered  it  impossible  to  do  more  than  shut  our  eyes.  The  little 
things  are  not  dangerous,  and  will  never  attack  a  man  even  when 
collected  in  large  bodies. 

The  land  down  here  was  a  perfect  plain,  with  timber  only  on 
the  edge  of  the  river,  forming  a  small  wooded  bottom  crossed  by 
many  sloughs  ;  a  great  part  of  this  plain  was  now,  after  the  heavy 
rains,  under  water,  though  I  do  not  doubt  that  some  well-dug 
ditches  would  easily  drain  it  off;  but  here  and  there  the  thickly- 
growing  toolas,  a  kind  of  thick,  fleshy  rush,  showed  real  swamps, 
and  as  most  of  these  had  been  burnt  off  during  the  summer,  it  gave 
the  country  a  really  doleful  and  black  aspect.  The  sloughs  we  had 
to  cross  were  fortunately  not  deep,  for  we  had  dry  weather  at 
least  the  last  two  days,  and  these  sloughs  fall  just  as  fast  as  they 
rise. 

About  dinner  time  we  reached  Vernon,  the  older  Meyer  also 
growing  ill,  or  at  least  so  weak,  that  he  could  not  walk  any  longer. 
Very  probably  the  sight  of  a  whale-boat,  just  about  to  start  from 
here  for  Sacramento,  did  much  to  make  him  think  so,  but  it  be- 
ing at  the  same  time  desirable  to  have  somebody  with  our  sick 
sailor,  we  took  passage  for  the  two — with  nearly  the  last  money 
we  had — the  passage  being  five  dollars  for  each  of  them,  a  dis- 
tance they  could  run  down  with  the  current  in  about  three  or  four 
hours. 

That  night  we  camped  for  the  first  time  again  on  the  Sacra- 
mento River  and  next  day,  Monday,  the  26th  of  November,  reached 
Sacramento  City,  where  we  found  our  sick  man  taken  to  a  board- 
ing-house, stretched  out  on  his  blanket  at  least  under  the  dry  roof 
of  a  tent. 

And  here  we  were,  after  a  winter's  excursion  into  the  mines, 
not  washers  but  washed,  as  that  old  American  had  prophesied 
only  too  truly ;  but  we  were  not  in  a  mood  to  be  sorry  about  any 
thing,  we  had  got  back  in  safety  and  if  we  had  no  money,  here 
we  were  in  a  place  where  we  could  get  plenty  of  work,  as  we 
thought.  We  could  sleep  at  least  dry,  the  clouds  threatening 


A  TRIP  TO  THE  GOLD  MINES.  169 

another  shower  for  to-night,  and  even  this  we  considered  a  perfect 
luxury ;  and  a  luxury  it  really  was,  for  our  clothes  had,  in  fact, 
had  no  time,  during  the  last  four  weeks,  to  dry  thoroughly  on  our 
bodies ;  and  such  a  life  would  certainly  be  sufficient  to  shake  the 
strongest  constitution,  besides  being  as  unpleasant  as  any  one 
could  desire. 

H 


CHAPTER  III. 

SACRAMENTO    CITY. 

BUT  what  a  difference  there  was  between  the  Sacramento  of 
four  weeks  before  and  now.  When  we  came  here  before  the  rainy 
season,  how  busy,  how  lively  the  streets  were — five  or  six  schoon- 
ers at  one  time  discharging  cargo  on  the  banks ;  wagons  press- 
ing around  it  to  get  their  loads  and  start  for  the  mines.  People 
in  the  streets  even  ran  sometimes  at  full  speed,  not  to  lose  their 
valuable  time ;  merchants  meeting  at  the  corners  exchanged  a 
few  hurried  words,  and  on  they  went  again  to  attend  to  their  busi- 
ness. Where  a  man  showed  himself  idling,  he  was  sure  of  hav- 
ing twenty  inquiries,  one  after  the  other,  "If  he  did  not  want 
work,  and  what  he  could  do  ?"  There  was  even  a  premium  paid 
to  those  who  would  get  good  workmen  for  the  different  schooners 
or  other  places  of  business.  Each  man  you  spoke  with  had  his 
own  plans,  and  generally  wanted  hands  to  help  him  in  accom- 
plishing them. 

On  the  landing,  there  were  as  many  schooners  as  at  that  time, 
it  is  true,  but  every  thing  seemed  dead  on  board,  and  if  you  saw 
a  figure  moving  upon  them,  it  was  the  cook  who  sat  leisurely 
upon  some  empty  cask,  smoking  his  pipe,  or  the  captain  himself, 
who,  once  in  a  while,  stuck  his  head  out  of  the  cabin  to  take  a 
look  at  the  clouds,  and  pulled  it  back  again  with  a  low  muttered 
curse.  No  wagon,  no  cart  was  to  be  seen  on  the  landing,  and 
those  few  men  who  were  idling  up  and  down  there,  seemed  really 
at  a  loss  what  to  do  with  themselves  during  the  whole  long  day. 
Whenever  a  new  vessel  came  up  from  San  Francisco,  an  accident 
that  occurred  perhaps  twice  a  week  now,  ten  or  twenty  men  hur- 
ried on  board  her,  hardly  waiting  till  the  planks  had  been  shoved 
out ;  but  they  returned  without  work,  the  master  having  been 
obliged  to  promise  his  passengers  the  job. 

There  were  enough  auctions  even  yet,  but  goods  fetched  no 
prices.  I  stopped  that  afternoon  before  a  tent,  where  a  Yankee 


SACRAMENTO  CITY.  171 

was  selling  a  quantity  of  rifles  and  pistols  by  auction,  and  was 
astonished  at  hearing  the  sums  he  all  but  gave  them  away  for. 
Small  pistols  were  sold  for  a  dollar  and  a  half  the  pair,  and  good- 
looking  American  rifles,  that  had  cost  eight  or  ten  dollars  at  least 
in  New  York,  for  three  and  four.  In  fact,  things  had  altered  in 
a  most  extraordinary  manner,  for  an  immense  number  of  work- 
men seemed  to  have  been  thrown,  by  the  rainy  season,  back  upon 
the  towns,  and  every  body,  wherever  we  inquired,  told  us  the 
same  tale — it  was  nearly  an  impossibility  now  to  get  any  work 
at  all  in  the  place. 

Although  provisions  were  a  great  deal  cheaper  here  than  in 
the  mines,  they  held,  notwithstanding,  a  very  good  price  ;  and  in 
the  boarding-houses  they  asked  three  dollars  and  a  half  a  day  for 
boarding  and  lodging — calling  lodging  the  cover  of  the  roof,  for 
you  had  to  sleep  upon  the  floor  in  your  own  blankets.  A  single 
meal  was  one  dollar  and  a  quarter.  For  us  to  live  at  such  a 
rate,  without  being  able  to  get  employment,  was  entirely  out  of 
the  question  :  our  sick  man  had  to  be  placed  in  comfortable  lodg- 
ings, as  far  as  they  could  be  got  up  here ;  and  though  it  was 
possible  to  pay  such  a  sum  for  one  man,  we  could  never  have 
managed  it  for  more. 

The  two  brothers  Meyer,  however,  determined  on  going  down 
to  San  Francisco  with  the  first  steamer,  where  they  had  money 
arid  friends  to  pay  their  passage  afterward  ;  while  Huhne  and 
myself  gave  our  sick  man  in  charge  of  the  hostess,  a  little  kind- 
hearted  Pennsylvanian  woman,  arid  leaving  all  our  things  in  the 
tent  as  a  kind  of  security,  we  shouldered  our  blankets  to  look  for 
work  of  some  sort  or  another.  After  having  tried  in  vain  for  this 
purpose  nearly  every  house  in  Sacramento,  we  went  four  miles 
farther  down  the  river  to  Suttersville,  but  without  any  better 
success ;  and  hearing  that  an  old  Dutchman  lived  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Sacramento,  an  old  settler  and  owner  of  an  immense 
tract  of  country,  we  determined  on  going  and  seeing  him,  as  we 
were  told  he  had  a  good  many  wood-cutters  in  his  employ. 

Mr.  Swartz,  as  the  Americans  called  him,  was  fortunately  at 
home  :  and  from  the  description  of  all  his  possessions  in  land  and 
cattle  I  had  heard  in  Sacramento,  I  had  thought  him  an  im- 
mensely rich  gentleman.  The  reader  may  judge,  therefore,  of 
our  astonishment  when  we  reached  the  spot,  and  found,  instead 
of  a  comfortable  building — house  and  garden,  and  farm-yard,  as  I 


172  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

had  most  certainly  expected — a  low  dirty  hovel,  and  Mr.  Swartz 
himself  suiting  the  place  exactly,  and  sitting,  a  great  deal  farther 
than  three  sheets  in  the  wind,  before  a  couple  of  bottles  of  most 
abominable  gin.  But  he  was  a  character,  and  on  hearing  him 
talk,  I  really  did  not  know  at  first,  and  in  fact  could  not  guess, 
what  language  he  spoke,  though  I  understood  the  sense  of  what 
he  said ;  and  it  was  not  till  after  about  half  an  hour's  conversa- 
tion, and  when  the  ear  had  got  accustomed  to  the  strange  sounds 
and  words,  that  I  found  he  was  talking  a  most  wonderful  mixture 
of  his  own,  composed  of  Dutch,  English,  and  German,  and  a 
vague  suspicion  arose  at  the  same  time  in  my  mind  that  some 
Indian  words  slipped  in  between  the  rest — Huhne,  in  fact, 
thought  he  was  speaking  Indian  entirely.  As  it  seemed,  he  had 
formed  this  dialect  for  his  own  accommodation,  for  continually 
having  around  him  representatives  of  these  different  nations,  it 
would  have  been  a  perfect  torment  to  talk  to  them  in  all  their 
different  tongues.  In  this  mixture,  however,  each  of  them  could 
find  words  enough  of  his  own  language  to  serve  him,  and  those 
who  lived  with  him  proved,  through  their  understanding  this 
composition,  that  his  practical  invention  had  acquired  his  language, 
which  in  the  end  came  to  the  same  thing. 

That  evening  an  Englishman  came  to  see  Mr.  Swartz  on  some 
business,  and  I  had  a  fair  chance  of  hearing  the  old  Dutchman 
(but  he  belonged  to  the  lowest  class  of  that  nation)  in  the  full 
flow  of  his  eloquence,  and  admiring  his  philology.  When  he 
commenced  playing  upon  the  stranger  that  part  of  his  lingo 
which  had  the  most  English  words  in  it,  the  latter  started  and 
looked  at  him,  then  after  listening  a  little  while  with  really  pain- 
ful attention,  he  seemed  to  understand  a  part  of  what  was  said 
to  him,  and  answered  accordingly ;  but  finding  at  last  it  would 
not  do,  he  asked  Mr.  Swartz  to  talk  English  with  him,  "  he 
didn't  understand  Dutch  enough,  though  some  words  really 
sounded  very  much  like  English." 

Mr.  Swartz,  without  being  the  least  disconcerted,  and  having 
expended  all  the  English  upon  him  he  could  muster,  commenced 
now  in  what  he  himself  called  his  own  language.  For  a  few 
minutes  the  conversation  was  maintained  in  this,  but  it  seemed 
worse  than  ever  for  the  poor  Englishman,  who  sat  there  with  his 
mouth  open  and  staring  at  the  speaker,  gave  it  up  at  last  in  de- 
spair, and  begged  Mr.  Swartz,  with  an  apology,  to  speak  Dutch 


SACRAMENTO  CITY.  173 

again,  as  he  had  done  before,  as  he  could  understand  that  a 
"  leetle"  better  than  the  English. 

But  in  spite  of  Mr.  Swartz's  originality,  he  had  no  work  for  us, 
having,  as  he  told  us  next  morning — for  that  night  he  seemed 
more  inclined  to  drink  than  to  talk — already  a  very  large  quan- 
tity of  wood  stacked  up  on  his  lands,  awaiting  the  boats  to  take 
it  down  to  San  Francisco — if  that  sold  well  he  would  have  no 
objection  to  cut  some  more,  but  not  before. 

What  to  do  now  we  did  not  know,  but  going  back  to  Sacra- 
mento, and  grumbling  about  the  miserable  state  of  business  at 
present,  we  heard  of  some  wood-cutters  in  the  bottom-lands,  be- 
tween Suttersville  and  Sacramento  city,  and  leaving  the  road  to 
see  what  work  those  men  did,  and  how  they  got  paid  for  it,  we 
followed  a  small  path  leading  through  the  timber,  and  soon  found 
ourselves  in  the  very  midst  of  the  wood-choppers,  who  were  felling 
trees  on  all  sides,  managing  things  as  it  seemed,  upon  their  own 
hands,  and  setting  up  cordwood  on  their  own  hook,  as  they  said. 

As  we  soon  learned,  all  these  men  were  cutting  trees  down  on 
Uncle  Sam's  territory,  not  caring  a  straw  who  might  claim  the 
ground,  or  the  trees  upon  it,  though  a  great  many  did.  Oakwood 
was  worth  at  this  time  about  fifteen  dollars  a  cord  in  Sacramento 
city ;  carriage  was  eight  dollars  the  cord,  for  a  distance  of  hardly 
two  miles  on  a  perfect  level  road,  so  there  was  about  seven  dol- 
lars left  for  the  wood  itself,  certainly  a  very  fair  price,  for  a  good 
workman  could  set  up  a  cord  very  easily  in  a  day.  On  inquiring, 
we  learnt  from  the  wood-cutters  themselves  that  wood  was  a  very 
good  article  at  present,  there  being  not  the  least  danger  in  the 
world  of  our  not  selling  the  cord  for  cash,  if  we  only  first  set  it  up, 
and  we  were  sure  of  getting  seven  dollars ;  but  even  if  we  did 
not  wish  to  run  the  risk,  we  could  get  five  dollars  and  a  half  from 
some  of  the  wood-cutters  themselves  here. 

There  was  a  chance  ;  bidding  good-by  to  the  friendly  fellows 
who  had  given  us  such  good  advice,  we  hastened  toward  town, 
to  commence  our  work  as  soon  as  possible,  not  to  get  too  much  in 
debt  with  our  sick  man,  and  even  found,  before  we  left  the  bot- 
tom, an  Englishman,  who  had  some  hands  employed  in  wood- 
cutting, and  wanted  us  to  set  up  for  him  three  cords,  seven  dol- 
lars a  cord ;  he  even  offered  to  lend  us  an  ax  at  first  starting.  In 
town  I  took  my  gun  into  an  iron  ware-room,  and  left  it  there  as 
security  for  another  ax  with  a  handle,  the  handle  alone  costing 


174  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

two  dollars,  the  ax  two  and  a  half,  and  at  it  we  went  in  good 
earnest. 

The  first  days  we  got  on  very  slowly.  Huhne,  never  having 
handled  an  ax  in  his  life,  had  to  learn  first  how  to  use  it  to  the 
best  advantage  and  without  danger  to  himself,  for  an  ax  is  an 
awkward  and  dangerous  tool  for  a  raw  hand  to  handle ;  but  on 
the  third  day  we  had  set  up  a  cord  and  a  half  between  us,  and 
commenced  earning  money  instead  of  getting  deeper  into  debt 
every  day. 

But  who  were  the  real  owners  of  this  soil  and  wood  ?  Nobody 
knew,  in  fact,  nobody  cared,  at  least,  among  the  wood-cutters 
themselves,  though  there  were  in  Sacramento  city  several  Ameri- 
cans who  claimed  a  right  to  the  soil,  and  even  stuck  up  printed 
bills  on  the  trees,  all  over  the  bottom,  warning  the  wood-cutters, 
and  assuring  them  of  heavy  fines  if  they  persevered  in  their  un- 
lawful deeds.  The  wood-cutters  did  not  molest  these  bills,  but  cut 
down  the  trees  on  which  they  were  pasted,  and  fastened  them  in 
derision  upon  their  own  cords. 

I  do  not  know  how  it  was  with  the  land  at  that  time,  and  in 
fact  very  few  men  did ;  but  I  have  not  the  least  doubt  it  had  been 
taken  up  by  somebody,  and  probably  every  thing  done  to  secure 
him  in  after-time  the  ownership,  when  things  commenced  becom- 
ing a  little  better  regulated ;  but  as  it  was  now,  nobody  knew 
who  was  master  or  who  servant,  and  squatters  commenced  knock- 
ing up  small  cabins  or  shantees  every  where,  and  claiming  the 
nearest  hundred  and  sixty  acres  by  the  American  right  of  pre- 
emption. 

At  the  same  time,  a  meeting  was  held  in  Sacramento — squat- 
ter's meeting,  as  they  called  it — against  the  unlawful,  unnatural 
claims  of  landowners.  Large  bills  were  posted  all  over  town,  and 
on  the  appointed  evening  an  immense  log-fire  was  kindled  OIL  the 
bank  of  the  Sacramento,  just  opposite  the  City  Hotel,  where  a 
kind  of  scaffold  was  also  erected  for  the  speakers,  with  a  large 
American  flag  waving  over  it. 

I  was  of  course  present,  warming  my  back  among  the  multi- 
tude against  the  immense  fire,  and  listening,  at  the  same  time, 
to  the  unripe,  unpractical  speeches  of  mere  boys,  who  got  up  and 
spoke  for  hours  of  things  they  knew  nothing  about.  The  mob, 
for  I  really  do  not  know  any  other  name  for  it,  had  neither  law  nor 
reason  on  its  side  in  claiming  pieces  of  ground  which  had  had  a 


SACRAMENTO  CITY.  175 

rightful  owner  even  before  they  ever  thought  of  going  to  Cali- 
fornia, for  they  denied  Sutter  himself  the  right  of  possessing  pro- 
perty in  Sacramento  city,  while  they  claimed  it  for  themselves  ; 
but  the  truth  was,  they  wanted  a  property,  a  piece  of  ground 
here  of  their  own,  which  they  did  not  like  stealing  openly,  and  in 
order  to  have  now  a  so-called  just  cause  for  the  deed,  they  brought 
forward  the  old  nonsense  of  the  common  American  stump- 
speeches,  as  you  can  hear  in  the  States  at  election-time  fifty  times 
a  day.  Boys,  whose  beards  had  never  seen  the  first  razor,  climb- 
ed up  upon  the  speaker's  bench,  the  third  word  they  uttered 
being  the  "glorious  flag,"  and  the  fourth  sentence  "the  blood 
their  forefathers  had  shed  to  maintain  their  rights,"  repeating 
over  and  over  again  old  stories  nobody  thought  of  denying  or  con- 
tradicting, and  a  party  of  loafers  standing  at  a  distance  round  the 
fire,  only  near  enough  to  hear  the  loudly-screamed  watch  word, 
would  then  break  out  in  halloos  and  hurrahs  that  frequently  last- 
ed five  minutes. 

The  glorious  flag  received  that  night  at  least  thirty  times  three, 
arid  even  three  times  three  more  cheers,  and  hip,  hip,  hip,  hurrahs, 
just  according  to  circumstances,  and  the  speakers  took  the  great- 
est pains  imaginable  to  prove  the  honor  of  the  flag  under  which 
they  sought  to  hide  their  own  illegal  actions. 

Finally,  they  came  to  a  resolution  that  the  rights  and  claims 
of  the  so-called  landowners — viz.,  Sutter  and  others,  who  had 
thought  up  to  that  time  they  were  really  proprietors,  were  null 
and  void,  and  each  citizen  of  the  United  States  could  squat  down 
now  on  any  piece  of  ground  he  saw  fit,  and  claim  his  quarter-sec- 
tion, as  a  commencement. 

To  meet  such  unjust  demands  with  the  same  weapons,  the 
landowners  also  held  a  meeting  in  one  of  the  hotels  ;  but  the 
squatters — that  is,  all  the  loafers  from  the  neighborhood — in  order 
to  prove,  I  fancy,  that  they  were  also  free  and  independent  citi- 
zens, forced  an  entrance,  and  broke  up  the  meeting  by  howl- 
ing and  hissing.  But  every  nation  has  its  fair  share  of  scoun- 
drels. 

Next  evening  there  was  another  squatter-meeting  ;  and  nearly 
every  night  there  was  some  tumult  or  noise  in  the  street.  At 
the  same  time,  Captain  Sutter  had  a  bill  posted  in  Sacramento, 
by  his  agents,  Brannan  and  Co.,  warning  all  the  squatters  against 
building  huts  and  tents  between  two  certain  streets  in  Sacra- 


176  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

mento  city,  as  Captain  Slitter  himself,  the  first  squatter,  had 
claimed  that  soil  as  his  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres,  and  every 
body  who  continued  there  in  spite  of  the  warning,  would  have  to 
pay  a  very  heavy  rent. 

Things  went  on  in  this  way  for  a  good  while,  till  after  I  left  Sa- 
cramento City,  when  one  day  the  independent  squatters  became 
rather  too  independent,  and  shooting  the  sheriff — who  was  sent 
out  to  restore  order — down  from  his  horse,  the  citizens  themselves 
rose  up  against  them,  and  scattered  them  over  the  country. 

Only  the  wood-cutters  profitted  by  this  unsettled  state  of  land- 
ed property,  for  nobody  troubled  them — in  fact,  nobody  was  cer- 
tain about  the  boundaries  of  particular  claims,  or  about  the 
claims  themselves ;  and  even  those  who  pretended  to  own  the 
land,  bought  their  wood  from  the  wood-cutters,  or  sent  some 
hands  out  themselves  to  cut  down  whatever  they  needed,  and 
wherever  they  could  get  it. 

But  while  we  were  working  here,  out  in  the  woods,  we  wanted 
some  kind  of  shelter ;  the  last  night  had  been  clear,  but  clouds 
were  again  rising  in  the  west,  and  we  therefore  determined  on 
building  a  kind  of  ground-hole  or  hut,  with  every  comfort  bush  and 
earth  could  offer.  Digging  accordingly  into  the  slope  of  the  bank, 
to  get  a  backwall  and  a  fire-place,  we  set  up  a  quantity  of  poles, 
about  ten  feet  long,  with  their  ends  together,  all  resting  in  the 
middle  upon  a  centre  pole  or  rafter,  supported  by  two  large  forks, 
in  the  shape  of  a  tent,  and  covering  the  whole  first  with  a  thick 
layer  of  bushes,  and  afterward,  Indian  fashion,  with  hard-beaten 
ground,  we  soon  had  our  winter  residence  in  order.  Before  the 
entrance  we  hung  up  an  old  oil-cloth  of  mine,  and  the  fire-place 
being  finished  off  with  an  old  flour-barrel,  with  both  ends  knocked 
out,  and  a  piece  of  plank  fastened  as  a  mantle-piece  over  the  fire, 
we  lay  that  night,  while  the  rain  poured  down,  as  dry  as  if  we  had 
the  best  tile  roof  over  us.  It  is  true  the  hut  we  had  raised  was 
poor  enough,  and  damp,  and  dirty  :  in  Germany  I  would  have 
thought  twice  about  even  letting  my  Newfoundland  dog  sleep  in 
it ;  but  here  it  was  a  palace,  after  what  we  had  suffered  dur- 
ing the  last  four  weeks  ;  and  a  bottle  of  champagne  in  the  grand- 
est party  of  the  old  world  never  tasted  as  good  to  me,  or  was  im- 
bibed with  so  much  relish,  as  the  whisky- toddy  Huhne  and  I 
drank  that  evening  in  celebration  of  our  entrance  into  that  low 
arid  damp  hovel. 


SACRAMENTO  CITY.  177 

Our  sick  sailor  boy  had  improved  a  little  by  rest  and  good  liv- 
ing, but  not  enough  to  be  out  of  danger,  and  I  wanted  to  speak 
to  a  doctor  about  him.  There  was  one  of  our  countrymen  at  the 
time  in  Sacramento  city — a  Dr.  Tiimler,  just  arrived  from  Ger- 
many— and  our  little  apothecary  went  to  see  him  on  behalf  of  the 
sick  man.  Dr.  Tiimler  though  wanted  a  house  built,  and  after 
examining  the  patient,  he  told  him  he  had  the  scurvy,  and  must 
have  a  bottle  of  his  medicine,  price  four  dollars  ;  without  that,  he 
would  go  to  the  grave,  and  there  was  no  help  for  him  ;  but,  as 
he  was  poor,  he  would  give  him  the  medicine  gratis,  if  he  would 
stay  with  him,  and  help  him  to  build  his  house. 

And  this  mean  fellow,  who  asked  a  man  who  really  died 
hardly  eleven  days  afterward,  to  work  for  him,  and  receive  in 
payment  a  bottle  of  his  quack  medicine,  called  himself  a  Ger- 
man doctor.  I  would  not  have  begrudged  him  the  "  Doctor," 
but  I  really  felt  ashamed  of  his  being  a  German. 

At  this  same  time,  the  landlord  of  the  boarding-house — also  a 
German — declared  he  would  not  keep  the  sick  man  in  his  tent, 
because  he  drove  away  his  healthy  customers,  who  were  much 
more  profitable  to  him,  for  of  course  the  invalid  was  not  allowed 
to  drink  spirituous  liquors,  except  a  glass  of  wine  sometimes  ;  but 
that  was  not  all :  no  other  boarding-house  in  town  would  receive 
him,  though  I  went  from  house  to  house,  boarding  being,  in  fact, 
the  same  price  with  all  of  them — three  dollars  and  a  half  a  day. 
The  proprietors  of  one  of  the  gambling-houses  at  last  offered 
to  give  him  a  place  in  their  loft ;  but  there  was  a  continual 
noise  of  a  couple  of  trumpets,  horns,  and  drums,  kept  up  in  it 
from  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  till  sometimes  twelve  and  one 
o'clock  at  night,  and  no  healthy  man  could  have  stood  it,  much 
less  a  sick  one.  At  last,  some  Germans,  who  had  come  over 
with  him  in  the  same  vessel,  offered  him  a  place  in  their  tent, 
where  he  had  at  least  a  shelter,  while  he  could  get  from  the 
boarding-house  close  by  what  food  he  needed. 

These  three  Germans  were  musicians,  and  they  had  made  an 
agreement  with  a  proprietor  of  one  of  the  gambling-houses  to 
play  there  in  the  morning  two  or  three,  and  in  the  evening  fotir 
hours  ;  one  of  them  played  the  flute  exceedingly  well,  the  other 
two  accompanied  him  on  the  guitar.  How  they  executed  their 
pieces  seemed,  in  fact,  all  the  same,  as  the  Americans  said  them- 
selves they  only  wanted  a  noise ;  and  as  these  hells  in  some 


178  JOURNEY   ROUND   THE  WORLD. 

streets  stood  house  by  house,  or  rather  tent  by  tent,  the  reader 
may  judge  what  a  deafening  mass  of  sounds  continually  floated 
through  the  air. 

By  Monday,  the  10th  of  December,  Huhne  and  I  had  paid  all 
our  own  and  the  sick  man's  debts  ;  and  knowing  him  to  be  in 
good  hands  for  at  least  the  next  one  or  two  weeks,  I  determined 
on  going  down  to  San  Francisco,  and  accepting  the  friendly  invi- 
tation of  some  fellow-passengers,  the  Messrs,  von  Witzleben,  who 
had  established  a  brewery  on  the  Mission  Dolores,  about  three 
miles  distant  from  San  Francisco.  At  the  same  time,  I  could 
find  a  place  for  our  sailor,  who  would  get  well,  I  had  not  the 
least  doubt,  as  soon  as  he  could  obtain  good  medicine  and  the 
necessary  accommodations.  But  he  needed  none  of  them  long, 
for  I  had  hardly  left  Sacramento  city  when  he  died.  Poor  fel- 
low !  how  were  the  dreams  now  realized  with  which  he  had 
come  to  this  golden  land  ?  A  small  cold  grave  was  dug  for  him, 
and  far  away  from  his  home  and  friends  he  sleeps  in  the  ground 
it  had  been  his  ambition  to  reach. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

MISSION   DOLORES. 

THE  steamer  I  went  down  with  to  San  Francisco  was  the 
"  Senator,"  one  of  the  largest-— or,  in  fact,  the  largest — boat, 
at  that  time,  running  either  on  the  Sacramento  or  Tonquin 
River.  The  passage  was  a  trip  of  about  sixteen  hours,  cost 
twenty-five  dollars,  without  bed  or  food.  Those  boats  gained  an 
immense  quantity  of  money  at  that  time,  and  they  were  always 
crowded  with  passengers  and  freight. 

We  reached  San  Francisco  late  in  the  evening  in  very  bad 
weather,  so  we  had  to  drop  our  anchor  and  wait  till  daylight  to 
thread  our  way  through  the  shipping.  That  night  a  storm 
raged,  several  vessels  were  wrecked  outside  the  harbor,  and  in 
town  three  or  four  houses  fell  down.  People  even  talked  of  some 
shocks  they  had  felt  like  an  earthquake,  but  I  slept  all  night 
soundly  under  one  of  the  cabin  tables,  rolled  up  in  my  blanket, 
and  only  woke  when  the  rattling  of  the  heavy  chain  on  deck  told 
me  that  day  had  dawned.  We  dropped  anchor  again  near  the 
wharf,  and  had  to  pay  another  dollar  per  head  to  be  carried  over 
to  the  landing. 

But  what  a  change  had  come  over  San  Francisco.  I  had  left 
tents,  and  low  huts,  and  shantees,  only  two  months  before,  and 
there  were  now  regular  streets  of  high  wooden,  and  even  here 
and  there,  brick  buildings  ;  but  if  the  habitations  had  improved, 
the  streets  had  become  porportionally  worse.  In  October,  not 
a  drop  of  rain  had  fallen,  and  the  streets  were  hard  and  dry. 
Now  they  seemed  to  be  only  a  liquid  and  moving  mass  of  soft, 
chocolate-colored  mud.  In  going  from  one  house  to  another  you 
had  to  wade  through  it,  and  crossing  a  street  seemed  a  matter 
of  life  and  death.  Many  places  became  really  impassable,  and  in 
Clay  and  Montgomery  Streets,  mules  were  several  times  drowned 
in  the  middle  of  the  road.  Necessity,  however,  is  the  mother  of 
/  invention,  and  the  inhabitants  of  San  Francisco  had  commenced 


180  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

forming  a  perfectly  new  kind  of  trottoir,  so  that  they  could  pass 
where  these  had  been  laid,  in  a  comparatively  dry  state  from 
one  house  to  another.  These  consisted  of  small  pieces  of  wood — 
old  staves  decidedly  having  the  preference — which  were  fastened 
upon  cross  pieces  that  rested  upon  piles.  In  such  places  a  man 
could  walk  dry,  and  with  the  pleasant  feeling  of  having  a  sure  foot- 
ing as  long  as  they  lasted  ;  but  they  did  not  do  much  good  as  yet, 
for  where  they  ended,  you  had  to  jump  down  in  the  mud  again, 
and  deliver  yourself,  without  discretion,  to  the  mercy  of  the  soft- 
est place  you  could  pick  out  from  above.  No  wonder  high  wa- 
ter-boots cost,  at  that  time,  as  much  as  two  hundred  dollars  a 
pair ;  and  one  hundred  and  twenty  dollars  was  for  several  months 
the  regular  price. 

San  Francisco  seemed  also  to  be  crowded  with  laborers,  who 
had  sought  the  shelter  of  the  town,  preferring  a  smaller  but  surer 
gain  to  the  uncertain  toil  of  gold-digging  in  the  wet  mountains. 
But  San  Francisco  also  offered  them  a  larger  field,  the  town  itself 
employing  a  great  many  laborers  in  improving,  as  far  as  they 
could,  the  state  of  the  streets ;  the  shipping  also  required  a  good 
many  hands. 

But  as  I  did  not  intend  to  go  to  work  again,  as  I  had  done  in 
Sacramento,  when  I  was  obliged  to  provide  for  the  sick  man,  I 
exchanged,  before  all  other  things,  my  dress — and  I  could  have 
called  it  more  properly  rags — for  dry  clothing,  and  then  went  out 
to  the  Mission  Dolores,  which  lay  about  three  miles  distant  from 
the  city  and  toward  the  south,  upon  the  small  strip  of  land  which 
forms  a  kind  of  long  peninsula  between  the  bay  of  San  Francisco 
and  the  Pacific  Ocean.  The  road  led  at  that  time  through  a 
perfect  desert  of  sandy  hills,  partly  overgrown  with  low,  stunted 
oaks  and  laurels  ;  and  the  Mission  itself,  as  the  old  church  and 
about  twenty  or  twenty-five  low  stone  huts  were  called,  seemed 
to  be  chiefly  inhabited  by  Spaniards  and  Indians.  Only  here 
and  there  Americans  had  commenced  settling  among  them,  with- 
out having  built  as  yet  a  single  house  of  their  own.  They  only 
paid  a  rent  for  what  they  inhabited  to  the  Spaniards  or  Califor- 
nians,  and  therefore  the  whole  place  had  nearly  entirely  retained 
its  original  character. 

The  Mission  Dolores,  or  the  original  building,  which  contained 
the  church  and  the  habitation  of  the  priests  was  an  old  crazy 
adobe  building,  and  had,  when  gold  was  first  discovered  in  Cali- 


MISSION  DOLORES.  181 

fornia,  been  almost  uninhabited,  except  by  some  Indians,  who 
lived,  or  rather  camped,  in  the  old  dark  and  damp  rooms,  using 
them,  at  the  same  time,  for  parlor  and  stable.  But  if  one  of 
those  old  priests  who  sleep  their  long,  long  sleep  in  the  little 
grave-yard  of  that  once  so  lonely  place,  beneath  a  crumbling  mound 
and  a  half-rotten  head-board  in  the  form  of  a  cross,  should  get 
up  now  and  see  what  a  change  only  a  few  years — ay,  even  months 
— have  brought  over  the  sanctuary  of  former  days,  would  he  not 
clasp  his  bony  hands  in  mute  astonishment  and  dread  at  the 
sacrilege  those  worse  than  heathens  had  committed  in  his  holy 
building. 

The  reader  may  picture  to  himself  a  large  mass  of  adobe  walls^ 
forming  a  square  of  closely-connected  houses  about  two  hundred 
and  fifty  yards  each  way,  with  a  large  open  court-yard  in  the 
centre.  The  church  decidedly  formed  the  main,  or,  at  least, 
most  prominent  part  of  the  whole  building.  It  was  a  high,  lofty 
room,  with  a  couple  of  rough  pillars  of  unburnt  bricks  as  a  kind 
of  ornament  on  both  sides  of  the  entrance,  the  altar  covered  with 
all  manner  of  bouquets,  and  wreaths,  and  figures  of  saints  and 
martyrs.  The  priest  himself  had  been,  up  to  the  golden  time 
nearly,  the  sole  occupant  of  the  whole  building ;  but  speculative 
Yankees,  as  well  as  other  foreigners,  were  now  taking  possession 
of  a  large  part  of  the  formerly  unoccupied  rooms  ;  and  spreading 
further  and  further,  as  they  needed  more  room,  or  thought  they 
could  obtain  it,  the  priest  was  crowded  back  into  three  or  four 
small  rooms,  while  the  rest  of  the  building  had  found  as  motley 
a  group  of  occupants  as  any  old  church  could  desire. 

Opposite  to  the  priest's  rooms,  three  Germans,  whom  I  mention- 
ed before,  rented  a  part  of  the  wing  for  their  brewery,  using  the 
garret  or  loft  to  keep  their  barley  and  malt  in,  while  even  a  part 
of  this  garret,  only  divided  from  the  malt-loft  by  a  piece  of 
stretched  calico,  was  occupied  as  an  hospital,  under  the  care  of 
some  Argentine  doctor.  The  sick  up  here  were  nearly  all  Mexi- 
cans or  Spaniards  from  Chili,  the  Argentine  Republic,  and  other 
old  Spanish  colonies,  who  filled  the  loft  with  their  groans  and 
the  grave-yard  with  their  bodies.  Close  to  the  brewery  there  was 
an  hotel,  or  rather  boarding-house,  where  dances  were  held  twice 
every  week,  or  at  least  every  Sunday  evening,  this  hotel  being 
connected  with  an  older  grog-shop  and  gambling-house  round 
the  corner,  with  the  sign  of  the  Bull's  Head.  Besides  this,  there 


182  JOimNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

were  in  the  front  part  of  the  building,  five  or  six  private  habita- 
tions. 

As  the  people  Squatted  every  where  on  Mission  land,  the  priest 
had  gone  to  law  about  it,  claiming  all  the  district  around  there 
as  church  ground,  but  even  that  would  do  him  no  good.  He 
lost  his  law-suit,  and  disappeared  entirely  one  morning  from  his 
lodging,  never  to  be  seen  again  at  the  Mission  Dolores. 

The  Mission  is  situated  very  prettily  at  the  head  of  a  little  bay 
which  juts  in  here  from  the  large  one  toward  the  coast  range, 
having  a  most  excellent  and  good  entrance,  and  some  good  land- 
ing-places for  boats,  though  the  channel  is  rather  shallow  at  low 
water,  and  could  not  be  passed  at  lowest  tide  by  loaded  boats. 
There  is  a  splendid  view  toward  the  contra-coast,  with  a  part 
of  the  cultivated  land  on  this  shore,  a  small  sheet  of  water  of  the 
large  bay  itself  visible,  and  the  high  contra-coast,  one  part  of  the 
ridge  being  crowned  with  a  thicket  of  splendid  cedar  or  redwood 
trees,  and  Mount  Diavolo  with  its  snowy  peak  peering  over  it. 
The  hills  round  the  Mission  itself — at  least,  those  between  the 
sea-coast  and  the  southern  pass — are  entirely  naked,  only  covered 
with  fine  grass  after  the  rainy  season  had  set  in ;  but  toward 
San  Francisco,  the  sandy,  undulating  ridges  are  generally  cover- 
ed, as  I  said  before,  with  stunted  oaks  of  a  dark  green  color, 
through  which  the  white  sandy  bottom  shines  out  afar.  The 
sea  itself  was  about  four  miles  distant,  and  we  could  plainly 
hear  the  breakers  as  they  threw  themselves  in  sport  and  anger 
against  the  rocky,  rugged  coast. 

After  finishing,  in  one  room  of  the  old  crazy  building,  my  cor- 
respondence for  Germany,  I  had  plenty  of  time  to  look  about ; 
and  my  special  wish  was  to  see  and  become  acquainted  with  the 
habits  of  Californians,  or  Spaniards,  themselves,  as  the  Americans 
called  them.  The  fandango  seemed  to  me,  in  this  respect,  the 
most  national  amusement,  and  I  visited  it  several  times  ;  but  I 
must  acknowledge  my  expectations  were  disappointed.  There 
may  exist  different  kinds,  though  I  never  saw  any  other  but  that 
one,  which  seemed  to  me  rather  a  monotonous  and  dull  affair — 
young  ladies  walking  and  gliding  about  with  downcast  eyes  and 
mincing  steps,  and  putting  down  their  pretty  little  feet  as  care- 
fully as  if  they  were  stepping  among  eggs  and  did  not  want  to 
break  them.  The  musicians  and  spectators  alone — -just  those 
parties  who,  in  our  country,  keep  cool  while  others  dance — seemed 


MISSION  DOLORES.  183 

to  grow  excited ;  the  guitar-players,  who  nearly  always  sing  the 
melody  at  the  same  time,  and  seem  to  be  also  improvisatores, 
adapting  the  words  to  the  persons  who  happen  to  be  on  the  floor, 
screaming  themselves  into  a  perfect  excitement,  while  the  specta- 
tors applaud,  and  laugh,  and  stamp,  and  scream  in  pure  delight, 
till  some  particularly  admired  lady  steps  into  the  ring  and  is  re- 
ceived with  loud  and  admiring  bravos,  the  players  then  always 
commencing  a  much  livelier  tune. 

But  the  spectators  do  not  content  themselves  with  mere  accla- 
mations. They  have  a  far  more  practical  way  of  showing  their 
admiration  to  the  lady,  for  they  throw  money  into  the  ring  to  her. 
Half-dollars  and  dollars,  even  ounces,  I  have  seen  thrown  to  some 
very  favorite  young  lady,  who  is  then  obliged  to  pick  up  the  coins 
herself,  for  it  would  be  the  greatest  insult  to  the  donor  if  she  al- 
lowed any  one  else  to  do  it  for  her. 

They  have  other  strange  customs  with  this  fandango  ;  for  in- 
stance, the  egg-breaking  between  Shrove-Tuesday  and  Easter.  I 
was  standing  one  night  with  the  rest,  looking  at  a  couple  of  young 
girls — neighbors  of  ours — who  were  really  moving  about  with 
much  ease  and  grace,  while  an  old  Spaniard,  the  brother  of  our 
nearest  neighbor,  whom  we  used  to  call  on  that  account,  ' '  the 
brother-in-law,"  had  already  screamed  himself  hoarse  in  pure  de- 
light, when  suddenly  a  young  Californian,  the  owner  of  a  large 
rancho  not  far  from  San  Jose,  who  was  standing  close  by  my  side, 
reached  out  his  arm  when  one  of  the  girls  came  in  the  dance 
near  us,  and  crushed  something  upon  her  head,  I  could  not  see 
what  it  was,  but  I  could  hear  it  break.  The  senorita,  however, 
did  not  seem  to  mind  it  at  all ;  but  on  feeling  the  touch,  and  with- 
out stopping  the  dance  for  a  moment,  she  merely  bent  her  head 
slightly  forward,  and  something,  whatever  it  was,  glided  down 
her  smoothly-combed  hair ;  and  while  she  passed  her  handker- 
chief lightly  over  her  head,  she  moved,  with  a  smile,  to  the  other 
side  of  the  ring.  The  thing  itself  had  fallen  down  before  me,  and 
I  was  rather  astonished  on  beholding  nothing  more  or  less  than  a 
raw  egg — most  certainly  a  singular  way  of  showing  a  lady  your 
admiration.  These  eggs  frequently  are  emptied,  then  filled  with 
eau  de  Cologne,  and  cemented  again  at  both  ends,  and  our  senorita 
took  her  revenge  in  a  similar  manner.  The  dance  was  not  con- 
cluded, and  two  other  senoritas  were  just  stepping  up  to  continue 
the  same  fandango ,  when  I  felt  my  arm  slightly  and  carefully 


184  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

touched.  On  slowly  turning  my  head,  I  saw  the  young  lady,  who 
motioned  to  me  to  make  a  little  room  for  her,  not  to  be  noticed. 
I  left  my  neighbor  as  softly  as  I  could,  and  while  she  reached  up 
and  disappeared,  nearly  at  the  same  moment,  behind  some  others, 
who  stepped  in  directly  into  their  old  places,  the  young  ranchero 
cried  out  loudly,  and  rather  in  pain  than  pleasure,  for  the  sharp 
eau  de  Colonge  had  run  down  into  his  eyes,  and  he  was  laughed 
at  into  the  bargain. 

Another  jest,  also  a  kind  of  politeness,  or  rather  courtship  to 
ladies,  is  the  rather  indelicate  cap-stealing.  If  a  lady  is  dancing, 
somebody  tries  to  steal  unobserved  behind  a  spectator,  and  grasp 
his  cap,  which  is  placed  before  the  owner,  who  runs  after  it,  can 
recover  it  upon  the  head  of  the  dancing  and  probably  favorite  lady. 
From  that  moment  the  owner  is  not  allowed  to  touch  it  again  till 
the  dance  is  finished,  and  then  he  is  obliged  to  ransom  it  for  at 
least  a  dollar. 

That  same  evening  some  Spaniard  took  the  cap  from  the  head 
of  a  young  Dutch  sailor — a  smart  little  fellow,  who  knew  very 
well  he  would  have  to  pay  a  dollar  for  the  joke,  and  calculating 
in  his  mind  that  he  would  get  a  new  China  cap  for  the  same 
amount  in  town,  he  tried  to  slip  away,  and  leave  the  lady  with 
the  old  cap  in  her  lap.  But  other  eyes  watched  him,  and  as  that 
would  have  been  the  greatest  insult  to  the  lady,  the  poor  fellow 
had  hardly  displayed  his  evil  intentions,  when  he  saw  himself 
surrounded  by  a  crowd  of  threatening  faces,  and  he  had  no  choice 
but  to  buy  his  old  cap  back  again  from  the  smiling  beauty.  Cali- 
fornia is  a  land  for  money  at  any  rate. 

Easter  came  in  the  mean  time,  and  the  Spaniards  made  great 
preparations  every  where,  on  Easter  Sunday  even  having  a  fan- 
dango in  church,  and  afterward  Judas  Iscariot  (an  old  stuffed 
figure,  to  dress  which  they  had  stolen  all  the  clothing  they  could 
get  from  heretics,  and  the  gentleman  also  had  a  handkerchief  of 
mine  round  his  neck) — was  tied  to  a  newly-caught  wild  mare,  and 
chased  and  driven  through  the  settlement,  amid  the  screaming 
halloos  and  shouts  of  wild  Indians,  and  even  wilder  Christians. 

The  principal  person  in  this  festivity  was  a  Californian  Indian, 
Valentin,  the  best  horseman  and  lasso-thrower  even  among  the 
Spaniards,  and  as  fine  a  specimen  of  an  Indian  as  I  ever  saw. 
He  was  tall  and  rather  slender,  but,  notwithstanding,  stoutly  built, 
with  the  long  black  and  smooth  hair  of  his  tribe,  and  dark  glow" 


MISSION  DOLORES.  185 

ing  eyes.  I  never  saw  him  on  foot  but  when  he  was  drunk,  and 
pity  for  him  that  happened  so  often ;  but  as  he  was  the  best  hand 
in  the  neighborhood  in  tracking  up  a  runaway  horse  or  stray 
cattle,  and  bringing  them  in  dead  or  alive,  if  he  had  once  under- 
taken it,  every  body  nearly  required  his  services,  and  they  all  knew 
brandy  the  best  recompense  for  them — the  cheapest  to  the  giver, 
and  the  most  pleasant  to  the  receiver. 

This  Valentin  had  to  fasten  the  clumsily-stuffed  figure  upon 
the  back  of  the  wild  mare,  and  it  was  really  a  beautiful  specta- 
cle to  see  the  cunning  Indian  overcome  the  kicking  and  rearing 
animal.  He  had  not  touched  a  drop  of  liquor  that  whole  day, 
and  acquitted  himself  exceedingly  well ;  but  when  I  passed  the 
hotel  that  evening,  the  fine  and  nobly-formed  Indian,  whom  I 
had  admired  in  his  wild  beauty  during  the  day,  was  lying  dead 
drunk  upon  his  back  under  an  old  cart,  his  feet  stemmed  against 
the  axletree,  and  his  head  resting  upon  an  old  yoke  which  had 
been  thrown  under  there.  At  his  left  side  an  empty  brandy-bot- 
tle showed  what  he  had  done,  and  in  his  right  hand  he  held 
another,  still  half  full. 

"  Dice  que  me  quieres,"  he  sung,  or  rather  stammered,  with 
heavy  tongue,  and  tried  to  throw  a  glance  on  the  bottle — the 
foam  was  upon  his  lips. 

"  Dice  que  me  quieres,  Caramba — 

"Con  el  corazon — 

"Dice  que — huzza  cavallita !"  he  suddenly  burst  out,  dreaming 
himself  still  on  his  wild  chase  after  the  poor  beast  of  a  mare, 
which  they  had  driven  with  the  mad  figure  of  Judas  Iscariot 
dangling  to  its  back,  into  the  mountains.  "  Huzza  !  huzza! 
guardase,  huzza  !"  and  the  wild  exclamations,  breaking  off  into 
an  inarticulated,  unearthly  scream,  were  followed  by  a  perfect 
flood  of  angry  words  in  the  Indian  tongue.  He  wanted  to  lift, 
after  this,  the  bottle  once  more  to  his  mouth,  but  he  was  not 
able  to  drink  any  more,  and  while  the  sharp  brandy  ran  over  his 
neck  and  face,  he  shut  his  glassy  eyes,  and  soon  lay  motionless 
and  senseless  in  deep  sleep. 

Spirituous  liquors  have  killed  more  men  than  powder  and  lead 
ever  did. 

But  Valentin  was  not  the  only  character  worth  mentioning  in 
the  mission,  though  he  was  the  only  Indian  really  respected  by 
the  whites — as  long  as  he  kept  sober,  of  course. 


186  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

Among  the  whites,  every  part  of  the  world  seemed  to  have 
sent  to  California  some  odd  specimen  of  its  curiosities  in  man- 
kind, and  I  found  a  number  of  them  principally  among  my  own 
countrymen.  The  most  of  these,  however,  had  come  with  the 
first  volunteers  from  the  States,  even  before  gold  had  been  dis- 
covered in  California — Uncle  Sam  having  sent  them  out  rather 
on  speculation.  These  volunteers,  were  rather  singularly,  the 
greater  part  of  them  Germans,  who  had  nothing  to  lose  in  the 
world  but  their  lives,  of  which  they  knew  exactly  the  value. 
The  United  States  must  have  regarded  them  as  lost  at  that  time, 
for  it  is  impossible  they  could  think  a  handful  of  such  "  food  for 
powder"  would  be  able  to  conquer  a  whole,  and  even  very  ex- 
tensive state  ;  and  if  the  Spaniards  killed  them,  government  had 
then  a  just  excuse  to  revenge  its  citizens.  Those  few  mad-caps, 
however,  cut  ofFfrom  all  succor,  and  finding  themselves  rather  in 
a  scrape,  aided  at  the  same  time  by  the  fearless  heart  of  the 
adventurous  and  daring  Fremont,  with  a  troop  of  trappers  and 
hunters,  really  took  possession  of  the  forts,  and  kept  them  till  the 
States  first,  and  afterward  the  citizens  of  the  whole  world,  sent 
over  their  masses  of  people  to  hold  the  country  against  every 
thing  California  itself,  or  Mexico  could  afterward  effect. 

Of  these  volunteers,  when  the  gold  had  been  once  discovered, 
crowds  deserted,  leaving  the  officers  to  follow  them,  and  the  forts 
to  themselves.  Most  of  them  also  discovered  the  richest  mines ; 
thus,  for  instance,  Sullivan's  Creek,  one  of  the  richest  places  in 
the  whole  mines,  was  discovered  by  some  of  Sullivan's  dragoons  ; 
the  Mormon  Gulch,  Carson's  Creek,  the  Rich  Gulch,  and  many 
more  by  others.  But  these  men  seemed  to  have  thought — and, 
in  fact,  they  affirmed  it  themselves — that  these  rich  places  wrould 
never  be  exhausted.  And  as  soon  as  they  gained  money  there, 
and  sometimes  five,  six,  or  more  ounces  in  a  day,  they  threw  it 
away  again  in  champagne,  and  other  luxuries,  which  they  had 
formerly  never  thought  of,  expecting  the  next  day  to  furnish  new 
gold.  Thus  they  lived  in  a  perfect  trance — a  kind  of  intoxication 
of  golden  dreams — till  more  and  more  gold-diggers  flocked  in, 
and  filled  the  gulches  and  ravines,  and  as  they  occupied  those 
places  where  there  was  the  least  sign  of  gold,  the  precious  metal 
became  scarcer  every  day ;  and  these  old  diggers,  not  willing  to 
acknowledge  such  a  fact,  now  crossed  over  from  one  river  to 
another,  commencing  here  and  there  to  search  for  such  spots  as 


MISSION  DOLORES.  187 

they  had  found  before,  and  giving  it  up  as  soon  as  the  place 
would  not  pay,  till  they  themselves  could  not  pay  any  thing 
more,  and  found  themselves  at  last  obliged  to  work  with  the  rest 
for  whatever  they  could  get,  when  they  had  to  be  satisfied  with 
two  and  three  dollars  a  day,  though  they  had  formerly  spurned 
a  place  that  had  not  yielded  them  as  many  ounces. 

Plenty  of  these  men  were  now  in  San  Francisco,  and  also  at 
the  Mission  Dolores,  working  for  what  they  could  get,  merely  to 
gain  their  living  during  the  rainy  season. 

But  some  interesting  settlers  of  former  times  also  lived  in  the 
neighborhood,  among  them  especially  an  old  German,  who  had 
come  to  California  twenty  or  twenty-five  years  before,  arid  served 
in  the  late  American  war,  and  though  he  did  not  like  to  acknowl- 
edge it  himself,  it  was  generally  known,  as  a  spy  to  the  Ameri- 
cans, and,  I  really  believe,  to  the  Californians  at  the  same  time. 
He  was  hand-and-glove  with  the  old  priest  at  least,  as  long  as 
he  lived  in  the  Mission,  always  gliding  about  with  a  dark  coat 
and  darker  face,  broad-brimrned  hat,  and  squinting  eyes,  never 
talking  much  about  the  past,  and  only  thawing,  as  it  were,  after 
half  a  bottle  of  brandy,  the  enjoyment  of  which  he  could  not 
withstand.  Many  a  word  then  escaped  his  lips  which  he  would 
never  have  suffered  to  pass  if  in  a  state  of  consciousness — words  that 
told  of  dark  deeds  and  actions  ;  and,  after  such  a  spree,  as  if  afraid 
to  trust  himself  any  longer  among  his  fellow  men,  he  always  dis- 
appeared for  several  days,  and  on  returning  he  was  the  same  sly 
old  fox  again,  gliding  about  and  watching  with  careful  eye  what 
passed  around  him. 

Runaway  seamen,  principally  from  whalers,  abounded  ;  also 
deserters  from  the  Mexican  war,  and  I  am  sure  there  never  was 
and  never  will  be  such  a  country  and  such  a  time  again,  where 
all  stages  of  society  and  such  a  variety  of  characters  will  be  mixed 
up  in  a  similar  way,  as  at  that  time  in  California.  Let  there  be 
ever  so  much  gold  discovered  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  all 
these  characters  could  only  be  collected  once  in  one  single  spot, 
and  though  a  good  many  of  them  will  emigrate,  they  will  never 
find  themselves  together  again. 

Among  the  festivities  of  those  days  there  also  was  a  marriage 
between  an  American  and  a  Californian  lady,  but  this  union  was 
talked  about  a  good  deal,  the  old  Californians  being  angry  enough 
about  it.  They  do  not  like  their  conquerors,  and,  seeing  every 


188  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

day  new  masses  of  them  flocking  in,  the  feeling  that  it  would  be 
perfect  madness  only  to  think  about  trying  to  regain  their  lost 
country  seems  to  make  them  only  hate  them  the  more.  Even 
during  my  residence  at  the  Mission,  several  murders  were  com- 
mitted on  the  short  road  between  this  place  and  Sari  Francisco, 
or  Yerba  Buena  (Peppermint),  as  the  old  Californians  call  the 
place.  The  murdered  men  were  all  Americans,  arid  two  of  the 
bodies  were  found  with  innumerable  wounds  all  over  them,  th& 
murderer  seeming  to  have  satiated  his  bloody  thirst  for  revenge 
by  running  his  knife  again  and  again  in  the  already  lifeless 
corpse. 

The  American  and  the  young  Californian  lady  were  married 
in  the  true  native,  but  rather  singular  style.  The  priest,  coup- 
ling the  pair  in  good  earnest  by  tying  them  together  hard  and 
fast  by  a  silken  rope  when  they  kneel  before  the  altar,  and  cov- 
ering them  with  a  large  cloth,  leaves  them  under  it  till  the 
whole  ceremony  is  over. 

The  American  had  of  course  to  become  a  Roman  Catholic  ; 
but  no  matter — he  got  his  wife  ;  but  another  American  fared  far 
worse  in  that  respect  in  Valparaiso,  where  he  also  courted  a 
Chilean  lady,  and  was  told  by  his  beloved  and  her  priest  that  she 
would  marry  him  if  he  became  a  Homan  Catholic.  He  agreed 
to  that,  and  going  through  all  the  necessary  ceremonies,  even 
holding  out  a  probation  time,  I  do  not  know  how  long,  thought 
himself  after  this  a  most  excellent  Catholic,  and  wanted  his 
wife — but  he  had  not  finished  yet.  The  priest  told  him  that 
though  he  had  renounced  his  old  errors,  there  was  too  much  of 
the  old  leaven  left  in  him  yet  for  him  to  take  a  Christian  wife 
till  that  was  expelled  ;  so  to  make  sure  of  it  he  would  have 
to  kneel  and  pray  five  days  more  in  some  old  cloister  in  the 
neighborhood,  and  be  considered  afterward  a  pure  and  true 
Christian.  And  at  it  he  went ;  only  five  days  more,  and  the 
ceremonies  had  already  lasted  more  than  fifteen,  so  he  did  every 
thing  that  was  required  and  asked  of  him,  repented  every  sin  he 
had  committed  before,  promised  to  become  a  new  man,  and  left 
the  cloister,  where  he  had  fasted  and  prayed  for  five  days,  as 
hungry  and  as  good  a  Christian  as  ever  existed,  to  find  the 
young  lady  for  whom  he  had  undergone  all  these  privations  mar- 
ried to  another  in  the  mean  time.  She  had  only  practiced  a 
pious  fraud  upon  him  to  save  his  sonl,  that  was  all,  and  he 


MISSION  DOLORES.  189 

could  not  even  complain  to  any  body  about  it,  for  fear  of  being 
laughed  at. 

We  had  down  to  the  last  days  of  February,  and  even  the  first 
of  March,  showers  of  rain  regularly  every  day,  sometimes  even 
perfect  falls  of  rain  that  lasted  a  whole  week  and  longer,  but  the 
weather  seemed  to  clear  up  a  little  more  now,  the  sun  gaining 
more  power  every  day.  The  hills  were  clothed  in  a  lively  green, 
even  the  last  snow  had  melted  from  the  contra-coast,  and  spring, 
beautiful  spring,  exhaled  its  genial  breath  from  southern  climes. 
But  as  life  and  growth  quickened,  and  fermented  in  the  veins  of 
the  plants  and  in  the  arteries  of  Nature  herself — as  the  buds  swell- 
ed, and  sweet  little  spring  flowers  peered  out  from  the  still  cold 
ground  to  look  around  how  the  world  fared  this  year — so  in  man ; 
in  those  thousands  who  were  driven  during  the  rainy  season  into 
the  shelter  of  the  warmer  towns,  a  new  spirit  seemed  to  rise  and 
grow.  Three  days'  sunshine,  and  men  who  accepted  only  a  few 
days  before  the  lowest  wages,  merely  to  live,  refused  splendid 
offers — sold  or  threw  away  what  they  had  saved  up  to  this  min- 
ute from  the  wreck  of  their  former  property,  and  prepared  for  a 
start  into  the  mines,  acting,  frequently  as  if  their  lives  all  at  once 
depended  on  an  hour's  longer  stay  in  town.  Tents,  which  they 
themselves  only  the  last  autumn  had  sold,  in  the  mountains,  for 
ten  and  twelve  dollars,  merely  to  get  rid  of  them,  they  bought 
again  for  fifty  and  sixty  dollars,  to  pack  them  up  once  more. 
Tin  pans,  blankets,  and  provisions  rose  in  price,  and  mules 
which  nobody  would  have  during  the  winter,  now  became  the 
most  favorite  and  sought  for  articles. 

And  to  which  mines  do  these  thousands  flock,  who  are  ready 
for  a  start  while  the  ground  is  not  yet  dry  from  the  last  rains, 
and  another  spell  of  wet  weather — as  really  happened — could  set 
in  every  hour  ?  The  richest,  of  course,  ought  to  attract  the  most 
gold-finders  to  their  gulches — but  which  of  them  are  the  richest  ? 
Nobody  can  tell,  for  if  you  believe  the  accounts  you  read  in  the 
papers,  there  is  not  a  spot  in  the  whole  mountains  where,  on 
striking  your  pick  down,  you  can  fail  hitting  on  a  lump.  One 
day  a  report  comes  down  from  the  Yuba  of  the  gold-diggers  earn- 
ing there  on  an  average  one  or  two  ounces  daily.  The  next  story 
is  from  the  Stanislaus,  of  some  one  having  lit  on  a  lump  of  I  do 
not  know  how  many  pounds  troy  weight ;  next  they  tell  of  new 
mines  discovered  in  the  coast  range,  arid  soon  after  mysterious 


190  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

accounts  are  current  of  a  gold-lake  having  been  discovered  by 
some  hunters  in  the  Northern  Diggings. 

To  make  things  worse,  the  first  accounts  of  Trinidad  Bay  ar- 
rived at  this  time. 

11  Several  degrees  further  north  a  new  bay,  called  the  Trini- 
dad, has  been  discovered,  and  several  men,  who  landed  there 
from  a  schooner,  washed  out  thousands  of  dollars  in  a  few  hours." 
This  notice  in  one  of  the  San  Francisco  papers  played  the  mis- 
chief with  many  a  poor  fellow,  who  really  could  not  lose  such 
an  opportunity  of  becoming  a  rich  man,  merely  by  going  a  few 
miles  out  to  sea  again.  If  you  found,  from  that  time,  three  men 
together  in  the  street  you  could  make  any  bet  you  liked  that  one 
of  them  was  bound  for  Trinidad,  and  the  singular  fact  appeared 
that  people  went  through  the  Golden  Gate  again  to  search  for 
gold. 

Trinidad  bay  really  existed,  and  several  schooners  went  there 
to  take  goods  and  provisions  to  the  gold  country — to  wish  after- 
ward they  had  staid  where  they  were.  I  pity  poor  gold  dig- 
gers who  follow  the  advice  of  the  papers  ;  they  are  most  certain 
to  go  to  the  wrong  place,  and  all  those  who  have  been  once  in 
the  mines,  and  become  acquainted  with  life  and  habits  there,  soon 
learn  what  to  think  of  such  advertisements.  Where  gold  diggers 
any  where  in  the  mountains  are  "  making  a  good  out,"  as  the 
saying  is,  you  may  depend  upon  it  they  do  not  talk,  much  less 
write  about  it.  They  stick  to  the  place,  working  away  as  quietly 
as  they  can,  and  never  pretending  to  earn  much  more  than  their 
living ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  where  the  mines  give  out,  or  no- 
thing new  and  good  has  been  lately  discovered,  and  the  store- 
keepers have  a  quantity  of  provisions  and  other  goods  they  do  not 
know  how  to  sell,  there  are  always  men  at  leisure  to  write  long  and 
glowing  accounts  of  "  newly  discovered  riches,"  and  if  they  only 
draw  a  couple  of  hundred  diggers  to  the  place — these  must  live 
at  least  while  they  stay  up  there — provisions  will  be  sold,  arid 
after  a  while,  in  company  with  these  men  they  had  enticed  up 
here,  they  can  leave  these  "exceedingly  rich  places,"  and  hunt 
for  another  spot. 

But  whatever  disadvantages  such -a  cheating  system  has  for 
individuals  who  suffer  under  it,  it  is  very  necessary  for  the  whole 
welfare  of  the  country.  If  those  places  were  really  known  and 
faithfully  advertised  where  the  most  gold  is  to  be  found,  all  the 


MISSION  DOLORES.  191 

thousands  who  now  follow  rather  a  wild-goose  chase  over  the 
different  mountains  and  water-courses,  would  all  flock  to  these 
few  places,  and  bloodshed  and  murder  would  be  the  unavoidable 
consequence. 

The  population  increased  at  the  same  time  in  a  nearly  incredible 
way.  From  the  States  alone  during  the  last  three  months,  one 
hundred  and  fifty  vessels  had  started  :  ten,  twelve,  and  fifteen, 
sometimes  twenty  or  twenty-five,  arrived  every  day.  A  monster 
train  was  expected  over  the  Rocky  Mountains ;  and  from  the 
north  and  south  the  neighbors  also  flocked  in  to  the  golden  har- 
vest. In  the  interior  itself  there  seemed  to  be  just  at  this  time 
a  great  many  difficulties — Americans  and  foreigners  had  not  un- 
frequently  some  slight,  but  even  bloody  quarrels  with  one  another. 
Legally,  foreigners  could  not  be  driven  out  of  the  mines  ;  but 
what  could  the  law  do  by  itself,  where  there  was  nobody  to  up- 
hold it  ?  A  crowd  of  rowdies  might  do  any  thing  they  pleased, 
and  it  pleased  them  to  do  almost  any  thing.  Such  difficulties 
gained  at  the  same  time,  a  more  serious  complexion  by  a  bill, 
brought  before  the  legislature  by  one  of  those  thoughtless,  miser- 
able beings,  who  care  not  for  the  world  if  they  can  only  flatter 
their  own  self-love  for  a  quarter 'of  an  hour.  This  bill  consisted 
of  nothing  less  than  really  prohibiting  foreigners  from  working  in 
the  mines  ;  and  though  it  could  never  be  put  in  force — for  the 
proclamation  of  it  would  have  been  the  signal  for  a  regular  war 
through  every  part  of  the  mines — the  mere  rumor  of  it  passed 
with  lightning  speed  through  all  the  valleys,  and  caused  quarrels 
and  bloodshed 

On  my  frequent  visits  to  town — for  I  took  the  beer  regularly 
over  with  the  younger  Witzleben  in  the  boat — it  was  really  as- 
tonishing to  notice  the  improvements  each  single  week  could 
show,  partly  in  the  erection  of  houses,  partly  in  the  improvement 
of  the  streets.  The  side- walks  of  staves  grew,  as  it  seemed,  over 
night,  and  in  some  streets  already  ran  along  whole  rows  of  houses  ; 
and  whenever  we  came  in  with  our  boat  we  had  to  look  for  an- 
other landing-place,  for  nearly  each  time  they  had  built  a  house 
just  in  our  way,  or  commenced  erecting  a  wharf,  by  driving  posts 
in  the  ground,  as  if  to  spite  us.  The  streets  themselves,  though, 
were  as  bad  as  ever,  or  worse ;  for  who  could  tell  their  actual 
state,  when  many  a  place  existed  where  they  had  not  even  been 
sounded  as  yet  ? 


192  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

As  many  an  old  settler  had  prophesied,  the  few  fine  days  we 
had  in  March  were  soon  followed  again  by  perfect  floods  of  rain ; 
the  Sacramento  even  rose  to  a  greater  height  than  any  white 
man  had  yet  witnessed,  swamping  at  the  same  time  the  whole 
town,  sweeping  houses  and  tents,  goods  and  stores,  and  in  fact 
every  thing  away  before  it,  clearing  the  woods  of  all  the  cut  cord- 
wood,  carrying  on  its  grim  sport  with  haystacks  and  fences,  and 
dividing  the  much-disputed  soil  into  an  even  allowance  of  water 
lots.  The  loss  of  property  was  said  to  be  immense,  and  many 
lives  were  lost  in  the  raging  flood. 

But  such  changes  are  of  too  frequent  occurrence  in  California 
to  be  talked  of  much  after  they  have  passed ;  so  what  water  did 
for  Sacramento  city,  fire  had  done  for  San  Francisco  (just  on 
Christmas  Eve)  some  time  before.  In  a  few  hours  a  large  space 
of  ground  was  covered  with  smoking  ashes,  and  two  days  later 
the  stranger  might  look  in  vain  for  the  empty  and  blackened  space 
which  in  the  old  country  would  be  undisturbed  sometimes  for 
weeks  after  a  large  fire,  if  only  to  let  the  ground  get  cold  again. 
In  three  or  four  days  some  of  the  smaller  buildings  were  run  up 
again  and  inhabited  ;  the  Parker  House,  one  of  the  largest  build- 
ings in  town,  which  had  cost  about  thirty  thousand  dollars  to 
erect,  arid  which  brought  in  twelve  thousand  dollars  rent  every 
month — of  course,  mostly  by  innumerable  gambling-tables  in  the 
large  saloons — was  again  raised,  five  days  afterward,  and  a  bar- 
gain had  been  made  with  the  architect  to  have  it  ready  again 
for  habitation  in  sixteen  days. 

But  if  the  town  needed  enormous  sums  ibr  its  improvement,  it 
also  had  an  enormous  income,  and  the  custom-house  in  particular 
drew  extraordinary  quantities  of  money.  The  officers  there  were, 
in  fact,  not  able  any  longer  to  count  the  silver,  so  they  measured 
it  first,  and  afterward — as  even  that  could  not  be  done  quickly 
enough — they  weighed  the  silver  in  large  scales,  using  shovels  to 
fill  them.  And  iri  spite  of  this  there  was  a  great  deal  of  smug- 
gling going  on  from  nearly  all  the  ships  in  the  harbor.  When 
once  taken  from  the  vessel,  nobody  asked  any  farther  about  it, 
even  if  you  landed  fifty  boat-loads  on  any  wharf  you  pleased. 
Officers  are  put  on  board  to  see  the  freight  discharged,  and  no- 
thing is  easier  than  to  unload  whatever  you  want  during  night ; 
or,  if  skippers  do  not  like  to  run  any  risk  at  all,  to  pay  these  cus- 
tom-house officers,  who  have  a  very  small  salary,  a  certain  sum, 


MISSION  DOLORES.  193 

and  do  nearly  any  thing  they  pleased  then.  But  they  must  not 
be  too  careless,  notwithstanding,  as  only  lately  three  ships  were 
confiscated,  whose  masters  had  calculated  rather  too  confidently 
upon  the  negligence  of  the  custom-house  officers. 

These  confiscated  goods  are  always  sold  at  public  auction  ;  but 
the  custom-house  alone  does  not  bring  them,  but  also  the  street 
commissioners,  who  from  time  to  time  hold  regular  auctions  of 
similar  stores  they  take  away  in  the  streets.  It  is  their  business 
to  see  the  streets  cleared  from  quantities  of  goods,  which  mer- 
chants not  unfrequently  left  at  that  time  before  their  houses,  be- 
cause they  could  not  get  them  in.  The  commissioners  gave  the 
owners  of  goods,  in  such  a  case,  a  certain  time  to  take  their  goods 
away  ;  and  if  the  latter  did  not  do  it,  the  former  did.  They  also 
often  found  goods  nobody  claimed,  the  costs  of  transport  or  storage 
amounting  to  more  than  the  goods  were  worth.  All  this  was 
sold,  and  the  proceeds  used  for  street  improvements  in  town. 

Houses  and  lumber  arrived  in  immense  quantities ;  ready- 
made  buildings  were  imported,  principally  from  China,  and  with 
Chinamen  in  the  bargain.  Wherever  you  saw  in  the  streets  a 
man  on  the  top  of  a  little  frame-house,  nailing  up  the  shingles,  or 
doing  something  else  to  it,  you  could  bet  ten  to  one  it  was  a  Chinese. 
Large  sums  were  lost,  though,  in  the  timber  and  lumber  trade, 
and  whole  cargoes  sold  by  auction  only  to  cover  the  freight,  did 
not  even  fetch  half  that  sometimes,  the  transport  being  so  very 
high  from  the  ship  to  the  town.  A  rise  in  the  price  of  lumber  was 
expected  with  the  next  large  fire,  of  which  people  spoke,  as  if  it 
was  a  thing  which  must  regularly  return,  like  summer  and  win- 
ter. Provisions  rose  and  fell,  just  as  vessels  came  in,  or  were 
expected ;  buying  and  selling  was  as  good  as  playing  at  hazard, 
or  putting  one's  money  upon  a  monte-table.  The  worth  of 
money,  therefore,  was  also  extraordinary.  Years  were  pressed 
into  months,  and  interest  was  calculated  in  the  same  manner  ; 
six  per  cent,  per  month  was  the  common  interest  for  money,  but 
ten,  twelve,  even  more,  was  frequently  given. 

"With  regard  to  literary  productions  there  had  been  very  little 
done  in  San  Francisco  as  yet ;  literature  was  a  matter  of  money 
like  any  thing  else.  But  there  already  existed  three  papers  in 
the  city,  the  "  Alta  California,"  the  "Pacific  News,"  and  a 
"  Commercial  Bulletin."  ~^i 

Speaking  of  literature,  I  may  just  as  well  mention  a  book  here-, 

I 


194  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

which  appeared  in  England,  and  was  translated  nearly  into 
every  other  language,  as  it  was  the  first  of  the  kind  :  "  Four 
Months  among  the  Gold-finders  in  California,"  I  believe  was  the 
title,  written  by  Mr.  Tyrwitt  Brooks.  I  had  translated  it  myself 
into  German,  and  showed  a  copy  of  it  afterward  in  San  Francisco 
to  Captain  Sutter ;  but  though  Mr.  Brooks  related  how  kindly 
he  had  been  received  by  Captain  Sutter,  and  gave  at  the  same 
time  a  rather  glowing  description  of  this  gentleman's  lovely 
daughter,  Captain  Sutter  knew  nothing  about  him,  and  another 
thing,  his  family  was  at  that  time  in  Switzerland,  and  only  came 
to  California  in  1850.  Mr.  Brooks  also  introduces  a  dreadful 
tale  of  a  sailor-boy  whom  the  Indians  scalped,  and  though  it  is 
very  well  related,  I  am  sorry  to  say  the  Indians  in  California  do 
not  scalp  at  all.  If  Mr.  Brooks  ever  should  invent  another  story 
— and  it  was  rather  a  frivolous  thing  to  do  it  at  that  time  with 
California,  for  I  have  not  the  least  doubt  the  book  enticed  thou- 
sands to  go  over — he  ought  to  be  a  little  more  careful  how  he 
mentions  names  or  facts,  for  it  is  disagreeable  to  be  caught  out  in 
/such  things. 

But  enough  of  town  life  at  present,  I  must  return  here  in  any 
case,  before  I  leave  California  again ;  and  the  reader  may  throw 
his  blanket  upon  his  back,  if  he  has  a  mind  to  see  the  mines,  and 
take  a  trip  with  me  to  the  mountains. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    MINES,    AND    THE    PEOPLE    IN    THEM. 

ON  the  8th  of  April,  a  beautiful  spring  morning,  I  started  with 
a  former  fellow-passenger  by  the  "  Talisman,"  a  man  of  the  name 
of  Henry  Boehm,  this  time  for  the  Southern  Mines,  and  not  on 
board  a  schooner,  but  with  a  small  steamer,  our  destination  being 
Stockton,  on  the  San  Joaquin. 

The  change  was  nearly  incredible,  which  a  few  months  had 
wrought  in  this  bay  :  three  summers  before  hardly  a  small  sail 
disturbed  the  solitude  of  the  quiet  sheet  of  water,  now  hundreds 
of  anchors  found  its  bottom,  and  innumerable  sailing  craft  and 
steamers  dart  through  the  restlessly  plowed-up  tide  ;  on  its 
shores  towns  spring  up  nearly  in  one  night,  and  steam-engines 
work  noisily 'on  the  same  spot  where,  hardly  a  year  ago,  the  In- 
dian followed  with  careful  steps  the  tracks  of  the  grizzly  bear  and 
elk.  But  California  has  also  every  thing  that  is  requisite  to  work 
such  a  wonderful  change ;  time  has  been  annihilated,  workmen 
are  there  as  many  as  the  country  requires,  and  money  is  furnished 
by  the  very  men  who  help  to  establish  the  state.  Still  this  coun- 
try is  in  an  unnatural  condition  :  there  is  an  uninterrupted  yearn- 
ing for  money — money  only ;  and  those  who  only  live  for  this 
will  probably  feel  comfortable,  but  those  who  have  the  least 
interest  in  any  thing  of  a  higher  tendency  will  never  make  this 
country  their  home,  or,  if  they  do,  become  like  the  rest,  machines 
to  coin  money  out  of  every  thing  that  comes  under  their  hand, 
from  preaching  down  to  stealing,  and  give  up  any  other  thoughts. 

The  boat  was  a  slow  one,  and  it  took  us  exactly  twenty-four 
hours  to  reach  the  little  tent-town  where  my  companion,  who 
had  some  goods  with  him,  engaged  an  ox-cart  at  nine  cents  the 
pound,  to  Murphey's  New  Diggings,  a  distance  of  from  eighty  to 
eighty-five  miles.  Freight  was  cheap  now,  for  in  winter-time 
they  had  paid  for  the  same  distance  sixty,  eighty,  ninety  cents, 
and  even  a  dollar  per  pound.  There  were  carts  and  mule-droves 


196  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

enough  now,  to  profit  by  the  good  state  of  the  roads.  The  Mex- 
icans especially,  display  a  great  dexterity  in  packing  mules  with 
every  thing  that  is  intrusted  to  them,  and  not  only  they  know 
how  to  arrange  to  the  best  advantage  flour-bags  and  small  barrels 
upon  the  mules,  but  even  fasten  on  the  pack-saddle  large  square 
boxes,  and  single  meat-barrels  of  about  three  hundred  pounds 
a  piece,  without  hurting  the  backs  of  their  mules,  and  are  very 
seldom  even  compelled  to  tie  it  more  firmly. 

Stockton  was  a  small  place,  not  half  as  large  as  Sacramento, 
though  with  a  position  equally  as  good  as  the  latter  town,  and 
certainly  destined  to  be,  in  after  years,  the  third  city  of  the  Cali- 
fornian  republic. 

An  old  gentleman  from  the  States,  a  Mr.  Hillman,  as  he  call- 
ed himself,  had  his  freight  and  baggage  on  the  same  wagon  with 
us  ;  and  in  his  company  were  two  young  Americans  he  had  en- 
gaged as  we  afterward  understood,  to  help  him  work  a  quick  sil- 
ver-machine, and  an  Irish  servant,  Jeremiah  Livingston,  com- 
monly called  for  shortness,  Jerry,  who  seemed  to  be  engaged  for 
any  service  in  general,  and  the  quicksilver-machine  in  particular. 
We  all  footed  it,  except  Mr.  Hillman,  who  had  bought  a  mule 
for  himself  in  Stockton,  and  rode  it,  with  an  open  umbrella  to 
keep  the  sun  off,  only  changing  now  and  then  with  Jerry,  to 
stretch  his  legs  as  he  called  it. 

Boehm  and  I  had  chosen  on  the  first  night  a  bushy  tree,  to 
camp  under  ;  but  Mr.  Hillman,  who  carried  a  tent  with  him,  in 
his  kind-heartedness,  would  not  allow  us  to  sleep  out  in  the  open 
air,  while  he  had  a  shelter  above  him,  and  room  enough  for  sev- 
eral more  ;  so  we  had  to  go  in,  though,  for  my  own  part,  I  would 
ten  times  sooner  have  preferred  the  fresh  mountain-air.  But  Mr. 
Hillman  would  not  hear  of  it ;  and  I  soon  found  he  did  not  in- 
tend to  give  us  only  the  benefit  of  his  canvas,  but  also  that  of 
his  prayers.  Mr.  Hillman  was  a  character,  as  I  soon  found  out. 

"When  we  had  laid  ourselves  down,  and  while  the  candle  was 
yet  burning,  which  Jerry  had  stuck  with  some  pointed  instru- 
ment into  the  centre  post  of  the  tent,  Mr.  Hillman,  who  was  a 
Methodist,  suddenly  sat  up  in  his  bed,  and  taking  his  night-cap 
off,  commenced,  with  close-shut  eyes  and  much  gesticulation,  while 
the  dim  flare  of  the  candle  threw  a  ghastly  light  upon  his  sharp- 
ly-cut features,  a  long,  loud  prayer.  Mr.  Livingston,  at  the  same 
time,  a  Roman  Catholic,  but  far  too  good  a  miller  not  to  set  his 


THE  MINES,  AND  THE  PEOPLE  IN  THEM.     197 

sweeps  with  the  wind  wherever  it  blew  from,  also  rose  up  on  his 
knees  and  elbows,  and  resting  his  head  on  his  two  closed  fists, 
lay  there,  only  changing  the  greater  part  of  the  weight  sometimes 
from  his  right  side  to  his  left,  and  back  again,  and  patiently 
awaiting  the  end  of  the  prayer ;  but  simultaneously  with  the 
Amen  (of  which  a  kind  of  instinct  or  long  practice  seemed  to 
give  him  warning)  he  rolled  over  on  one  of  his  sides,  commonly 
the  off-side,  and  without  even  stretching  himself,  went  asleep 
just  exactly  in  the  position  he  had  knelt  in.  One  of  the  young 
men  had  to  get  up  and  blow  out  the  light. 

Our  road  at  first  lay  through  a  rather  monotonous  plain, 
overgrown  with  scattered  oaks.  These  oaks  bear  a  very  long 
and  sweet  acorn,  much  resembling  a  nut  in  taste,  and  form,  in 
fact,  the  main  winter  nourishment  of  numerous  tribes  of  Indians. 

On  the  12th  of  April  we  reached  a  little  river,  the  Calaveres, 
where  we  had  to  unpack  all  our  load,  and  take  the  wagon  to 
pieces,  to  cross  over  in  a  small  boat.  We  were  approaching  the 
chain  of  mountains,  which  stretched  out  ahead  of  us  in  a  blue 
ridge.  About  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  having  every  thing 
ready  again  for  a  new  start,  and  now  entering  a  more  hilly  and 
wooded  country,  the  landscape  acquired  a  varied  and  friendly 
character.  A  wide  undulating  stretch  of  prairie-like  country, 
with  little  thickets  scattered  over  it,  the  back-ground  formed  by 
high  and  darkly- wooded  mountain  ridges,  and  Nature  seemed  to 
have  decked  herself  to-day  with  her  most  beautiful  charms  and 
riches ;  it  was  as  if  we  had  entered  the  kingdom  of  flowers,  the 
ground,  as  far  as  eye  could  reach,  being  one  vast  carpet  of  the 
most  beautiful  colors  heart  could  wish  to  see,  sweet  odors  being 
wafted  at  the  same  time  by  the  light  breeze  over  the  gently-heav- 
ing ocean  of  many-hued  waves.  Never  in  my  life  had  I  seen 
any  thing  like  it ;  and  none  of  us  witnessed  this  wonderful  spec- 
tacle untouched,  and  more  than  once  the  thoughts  gained  words. 
"  Oh  !  what  would  we  not  give  could  we  send  a  bouquet  of  these 
beautiful  flowers  home  !" 

Even  old  Mr.  Hillman,  who  had  appeared  in  a  new  character 
at  the  ferry,  seemed  moved,  but  in  his  own  way,  for  he  stopped 
several  times  (Jerry  now  being  upon  the  mule  to  bring  up  the 
rear),  looked  at  the  sweet  sight  with  folded  hands,  and  admiring- 
ly said  : 

"  What  a  glorious  country  !     What  flowers  !     Good  Heavens  ! 


198  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

if  I  had  that  garden  within  three  miles  of  New  York,  I'd  make 
my  twenty  dollars  every  day  out  of  it !" 

But  I  must  first  mention  the  new  character  he  had  appeared 
in.  While  his  men  were  busily  employed  with  the  freight,  and 
a  good  many  other  wagoners  and  passengers  for  the  mines  were 
standing  before  the  grog-shop  an  American  kept  here,  he  sud- 
denly appeared  in  the  crowd  with  Jerry,  carrying  a  whole  arm- 
ful of  razor-strops  and  began  praising  them  with  such  extraordi- 
nary volubility,  that  the  by-standers  really  forgot  strops  and 
every  thing  else  in  listening  to  the  funny  old  razor-strop  man,  as 
he  called  himself,  while  I  understood  at  the  same  time,  he  was 
known  under  that  name  in  all  the  eastern  states  of  North 
America. 

He  then  asked  somebody  for  a  pocket-knife,  and  knocking  it  in 
the  most  heedless  way,  and  much  to  the  discomfiture  of  the  un- 
happy owner,  with  its  edge  against  the  iron  of  the  nearest  wagon- 
wheels,  and  some  stones  at  his  feet,  and  after  sticking  it  in  the 
ground,  and  hammering  away  with  it,  he  whetted  it  awhile  upon 
his  patent  strop,  telling  the  multitude  that  pressed  round  him  at 
the  same  time  a  whole  lot  of  funny  stories  and  anecdotes.  Then 
suddenly  catching  somebody,  without  farther  warning,  by  the 
hand,  he  rolled  or  stripped  his  sleeve  up,  till  a  part  of  the-  arm 
became  visible,  and  spitting  upon  it,  while  the  by-standers  gave 
a  loud  cheer,  and  holding  hard — for  the  man  tried  to  pull  his 
hand  away  from  him,  for  he  did  not  know  what  was  coming 
next — shaved  the  hairs  ofF  his  arm  with  the  stropped  pocket- 
knife. 

Such  a  character  was  the  razor-strop  man  ;  and  Jerry  stood 
by,  holding  the  strops  in  one^  hand  and  the  opened  umbrella  in 
the  other,  to  keep  the  sun  ofF,  and  not  moving  a  muscle  of  his 
face  at  all  at  the  old  fellow's  funny  tales,  and  the  roaring  laugh- 
ter of  the  by-standers.  He  had  heard  the  same  stories,  I  have 
no  doubt,  many  a  time. 

On  Saturday,  the  18th,  we  passed  nearly  the  whole  day 
through  an  uninterrupted  flower-garden ;  the  country  became 
more  hilly,  and  shady  groves,  with  clear  and  murmuring  streams, 
were  intersected  by  long  open  stretches  covered  with  the  most 
brilliant  flowers  imaginable,  and  even  forming  perfect  drawings 
on  the  plain  by  the  different  kinds  that  grew  together.  Thus, 
principally  under  single-trees,  a  blue-bell  had  occupied  the  shady 


THE  MINES,  AND  THE  PEOPLE  IN  THEM.  199 

places,  the  deep-running  little  water-courses  were  marked  on 
both  sides  by  a  broad  lilac  stripe  of  sweet-scented  star-blossoms, 
and  red  and  yellow  varied  in  the  picture  almost  regularly  with 
the  swelling  or  sinking  of  the  soil. 

This  evening  the  old  razor-strop  man  asked  the  Lord,  in  his 
common  loud  evening  prayer,  to  have  the  goodness  not  to  be 
angry  with  him  if  he — the  razor-strop  man — on  the  next  day,  on 
a  Sabbath,  not  merely  traveled  on  the  road,  but  also  had  his 
mind  occupied  with  worldly  thoughts — gold  and  other  trash — 
wliile  he  knew  very  well  it  was  his  solemn  duty  to  pray  only,  and 
think  of  his  sins. 

Next  day  (Sunday),  we  reached  the  first  diggings,  and  tried 
the  pans  after  dinner,  at  a  place  formerly  worked.  There  was 
gold  there,  and  enough  of  it  to  make  old  Mr.  Hillman  think 
earnestly  of  stopping  here  with  his  machine — who  knows  if  it 
would  not  have  been  the  best  for  him  ? — but  his  young  men  did 
not  seem  to  like  the  place,  and  persuaded  him  to  go  on.  And  so 
he  did  afterward,  but  that  night,  in  the  tent,  we  had  to  hear  a 
long  and  powerful  sermon.  "  As  he  had  predicted  yesterday,"  he 
said  in  it,  "so  it  had  happened.  Instead  of  thinking  of  his  God 
and  his  own  miserable  sins,  he  had  thrown  his  worldly  thoughts 
entirely,  during  the  whole  blessed  Sabbath  upon  the  mean  stuff 
— the  gold,  and  how  he  could  get  together  in  the  shortest  possi- 
ble time  the  largest  possible  quantity ;  but  he  only  rejoiced  (as 
he  continued,  lifting  up  his  face,  though  without  opening  his 
eyes)  that  he  knew  his  own  weakness  so  well  as  to  have  foreseen, 
this  very  accident.  There  was  some  hope  in  that  for  him, 
that  he  would  throw  off  his  sins  some  day,  and  become  a  new 
man." 

On  Monday  night — and  I  had  left  the  wagons  to  take  a  hunt 
through  the  woods — we  reached  Angelo  Camp,  a  distance  of 
about  nine  miles  from  the  place  we  wanted  to  go  to,  finding  it 
also  a  large  mining  place.  Here  Mr.  Hillman  had  made  up  his 
mind  to  stop — several  other  quicksilver-machines  were  at  work 
here  also — and  he  intended  to  try  his  fortune.  But  his  prayer 
this  night  struck  home — there  was  no  asking  the  Lord  for  any 
blessedness  in  general.  No  ;  he  went  straight  to  the  point,  and 
reminded  his  Creator  how  he  (Mr.  Hillman)  had  promised  him, 
before  he  started  from  New  York,  a  new  house  of  worship  in  his 
own  little  place  when  he  safely  returned  to  the  States ;  and  he 


200  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

now  asked  Him  to  let  him  also  fine  gold  enough  in  the  diggings 
to  pay  for  it. 

Next  morning,  we  reached  Murphey's  New — or,  as  they  were 
sometimes  called,  the  Rich  Diggings — an  appellation,  however, 
the  storekeepers  gave  them  to  attract  new-comers  to  their  place. 
But  Mr.  Murphey's  Diggings  were  a  real  little  mining  town,  and 
1  had  not  seen  one  so  complete  in  every  respect.  The  place  it- 
self— or  the  town,  I  may  well  call  it,  for  they  had  elected  an 
alcade,  sheriff,  and  constable,  and  had  given  the  little  place  Jhe 
name  of  Stoutenburgh — consisted  of  one  regularly-built  and  main 
street — tents,  of  course — with  only  one  frame  shed  (and  how  re- 
spectable it  looked  among  its  cotton  comrades  !)  between  them ; 
but  every  tent  a  grog-shop,  and  in  some  of  them  gambling-tables 
as  well.  Behind  this  street,  and  farther  on  in  the  flat,  other 
tents  were  wildly  scattered  about,  just  as  they  had  found  the 
shade  of  a  tree  or  a  cluster  of  little  bushes  to  shelter  them  against 
the  wind,  and  in  these  the  miners  lived. 

The  landscape  was  beautiful ;  and  the  little  place,  surrounded 
by  high,  wooded  hills,  with  the  American  stars  and  stripes  wav- 
ing over  it,  was  as  romantically  situated,  in  the  wide  valley  as 
heart  could  wish.  The  richest  spot  in  this  mining  district  was 
said  to  be  the  "flat,"  an  open  piece  of  ground,  which  the  little 
creek,  a  tributary  of  the  Stanislaus,  seemed  to  have  swept  over 
in  former  times  of  flood.  Mexicans  had  discovered  the  place,  and 
it  was  said  that  they  had  dug  very  deep  holes  here,  and  taken 
out  a  large  quantity  of  gold.  The  news  spread,  and  from  all 
sides  traders,  with  goods  and  provisions,  flocked  in ;  but  the  dig- 
gings did  not  answer  as  well  as  they  had  thought.  The  flat,  espe- 
cially, was  too  wet  during  the  greatest  part  of  the  year  to  allow 
its  being  worked,  except  late  in  the  fall ;  and  the  miners  had  to 
scatter  about  in  the  hills  and  commence  at  the  gulches,  which, 
however,  generally  yielded  tolerably  well.  The  flat  was  to  be 
worked  later,  and  they  had  framed  a  law  about  it,  by  which  no 
man  was  allowed,  upon  his  own  account,  to  hold  more  of  it  than 
one  claim  of  sixteen  feet  long  and  eight  feet  broad,  with  two  and 
a  half  feet  around  it  to  throw  his  earth  up  in  digging. 

But  I  will  not  tire  the  reader  with  all  those  old  mining  stories 
about  gravel,  and  clay,  and  holes,  and  claims  ;  about  lumps  of  so 
and  so  many  ounces  and  grains,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  names  and 
things  that  are  as  monotonous  and  tiresome,  in  the  long  run,  as 


THE  MINES,  AND  THE  PEOPLE  IN  THEM.     201 

any  thing  imaginable.  I  will  assume  that  the  reader  knows  all 
these  matters — he  ought,  at  least,  for  he  gets  enough  of  it  now 
from  Australia — and  the  work  is,  in  its  outlines,  exactly  the  same 
here  as  there. 

The  story  had  been,  of  course,  about  these  diggings — if  you  be- 
lieved the  papers  or  any  body  else  who  had  a  store  there — that  the 
diggers  could  make  an  ounce  daily  with  comparative  ease  ;  but 
if  they  did  so,  they  had,  in  fact,  to  make  it,  for  they  could  never 
dig  it  out  of  the  ground.  People  worked  every  where,  well  satis- 
fied if  they  could  find  on  an  average  from  three  to  five  dollars' 
worth  a  day.  Some  made  more,  of  course,  but  hundreds  were, 
at  the  same  time,  working  merely  for  their  living,  and  some  even 
accepted  work  with  pleasure  at  two  dollars  a  day,  if  they  could  only 
get  it.  So  much  for  all  the  mining  accounts.  I  will  not  deriy  at 
the  same  time,  that  many  have  made  their  fortune  up  in  the 
mountains  by  digging,  and  many  are  making  it  still,  but  it  is  a 
game  of  lottery,  with  this  disadvantage,  that  if  you  put  your 
money  into  a  lottery,  you  can  bide  your  time  at  your  ease  and 
leisure  till  your  blank  comes  out,  while  you  have  to  work  it  out 
here  yourselves  with  pickax  and  spade. 

But  in  spite  of  this,  all  these  countries  are  quite  another  thing 
for  the  working  classes.  A  common  laborer,  if  he  can  by  any 
possibility  pay  his  passage,  should  go  there  by  all  means.  He 
will  earn  his  living  without  any  doubt,  and  a  better  living  than 
he  had  at  home,  and  may  strike  a  good  place  once  in  a  while  ; 
but  all  those  who  are  not  used  to  very  hard  labor,  and  who,  at 
the  same  time,  can  not  do  without  all  the  comforts  they  thought 
in  former  times  indispensable,  let  them  stay  at  home  and  stick  to 
their  occupations,  or  they  will  rue  the  day  when  they  threw  down 
their  pen,  or  whatever  they  wielded,  to  take  hold  of  such  a  dis- 
agreeable instrument  as  a  pickax  is,  especially  in  wet  weather — 
the  water  running  down  your  sleeves,  and  making  you  feel  un- 
comfortable up  to  your  elbows. 

I  lived  a  miner's  life — without  reckoning  our  first  unhappy  trip 
in  the  rainy  season — for  seven  months,  going  through  all  grada- 
tions, and  working  in  every  way  ;  and  the  reader  may  think  I  be- 
came acquainted  with  it ;  but  I  should  not  speak  the  truth  if  I 
were  to  say  I  ever  liked  it.  There  were  pleasant  moments  in  it ; 
the  free  wild  life  in  the  mountains,  especially  in  fair  weather ; 
has  a  great  attraction,  and  looks  even  fairer  on  the  paper  than  it 


202  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

is  in  reality ;  and,  stout  and  healthy  as  I  was,  I  soon  became  used 
to  the  hard  work.  But  the  good  side  of  the  whole  proved  in  the 
long  run  only  to  be  moments,  and  the  long,  long  days  and  months 
that  intervened  could  not  compensate  for  all  I  had  left — for  all  I 
had  undergone.  And  yet  I  was  better  off  than  all  the  rest  of  the 
miners  ;  I  had  not  come  here  to  get  gold,  but  to  see  arid  learn  the 
life  in  California,  to  mingle  with  the  different  characters,  and 
store  them  up  till  the  time  came — a  time  when  I  could  take  them 
out  again,  and  set  them  up  once  more  as  living  things ;  arid  this 
gold  I  found  wherever  I  looked,  for  such  a  purpose  no  place  could 
have  been  better  chosen  than  California ;  so  I  never  regretted  the 
time  1  passed  there.  But  I  had  spent  the  money  with  which  I 
had  intended  to  leave  California,  after  I  had  seen  enough  of  it,  in 
my  unexpected  jaunt  through  the  Pampas  and  across  the  Cordil- 
leras ;  and  I  had  now  to  work  out  with  the  rest,  at  least  enough 
to  take  me  away  again ,  through  the  South  Sea  Islands  to  Sydney, 
where  I  had  money  waiting. 

But  to  return  to  our  life  in  the  mountains.  Boehm  had  set  up 
a  small  store,  and  as  he  had  been  up  here  before,  he  proposed  to 
me  to  work  together.  I  had  not  the  least  objection,  for  being  a 
raw  hand  at  it  yet,  I  had  to  learn  nearly  every  thing.  My  partner 
commenced  working  with  me,  but  soon  gave  up  again,  and  spent  in 
his  store  the  greatest  part  of  the  time,  while  I  had  to  divide  with 
him  what  I  washed  out.  When  I  told  him  at  last  this  would 
never  do,  he  persuaded  me  again — and  he  had  some  other  reasons 
for  it,  as  I  found  afterward — to  become  a  partner  in  his  store,  and 
share  every  thing  with  him. 

It  served  me  exactly  right.  I  had  warned  others  so  frequently, 
by  my  long  experience  in  the  United  States,  not  to  enter  into  such 
partnerships,  if  they  could  possibly  avoid  it,  and  now  I  jumped 
head  over  heels  into  one  myself,  and  I  should  suffer  for  it. 

Boehm  was  ill  for  a  good  while,  and  as  he  had  nearly  sold  out 
those  few  things  he  had  brought  up  with  him,  one  of  us  had  to 
go  down  to  San  Francisco  again  to  fetch  more — the  greatest  part 
on  credit,  of  course.  He  could  not  go  in  the  state  he  was  in,  and 
I  therefore  started  on  the  29th  of  April,  and  reached  Stockton 
without  farther  accident,  except  escaping  the  danger  of  being 
lassoed  once,  by  avoiding  the  tree  under  which  two  Spaniards 
were  standing,  one  hidden  behind  it,  and  the  other  calling  to  me 
to  come  nearer.  It  was  bright  moonlight,  however,  and  I  carried 


THE  MINES,  AND  THE  PEOPLE  IN  THEM.  203 

my  rifle  with  me,  so  there  was  no  danger  :  the  cowardly  rascals 
did  not  dare  attack  me  openly. 

That  day  I  made  the  longest  march  in  twenty-four  hours  I  had 
ever  done,  walking  from  daybreak  to  daybreak,  and  only  resting 
in  the  evening  a  few  hours  till  the  moon  got  up,  fifty- three  miles. 

Having  crossed  the  Calaveres  that  evening,  I  met  a  couple  of 
wagons  with  a  party  going  up  to  the  mines — a  thing  of  so  com- 
mon occurrence,  that  I  never  thought  of  looking  at  the  men,  and 
only  watched  a  young  Frenchman,  who  had  walked  up  to  a  cow 
(which  had  been  fastened  with  her  horns,  to  a  tree),  and  was 
treating  her,  as  he  stood  right  before  her,  while  the  astonished 
animal  with  bended  head  pulled  back  as  far  as  ever  she  could  to 
"  Allons  enfants  de  la  patrie"  upon  the  trumpet.  Having  my 
face  turned  toward  this  rather  singular  group,  I  was  going  to  pass 
the  wagons,  when  I  heard  a  voice  say  : 

"  I  must  have  seen  that  face  before — hem  !" 

I  turned  quickly,  and  had  to  laugh  right  out,  for  in  the  tired,  way- 
worn, dust-covered,  and  sun-burnt  figure  before  me,  I  recognized 
nobody  else  than  my  old  landlord  in  Buenos  Ayres — that  merry, 
wool-trading  and  trying  Englishman,  Mr.  Davies,  who  had  treated 
me  at  that  time  to  such  dreadful  stories  about  California,  warn- 
ing, even  begging  me  at  the  same  time  not  to  run  head-foremost 
into  perdition,  by  going  to  such  an  awful  country.  And  now  he 
was  here  himself;  and  after  a  very  dangerous  trip  round  the 
Cape,  as  he  told  me  in  a  few  words,  toiling  in  the  sweat  of  his 
brow,  to  undergo  all  those  dreadful  things  he  had  warned  me 
against.  Was  it  not  by  the  interposition  of  fate  that  I  caught 
him  in  the  act  ?  In  fact  he  did  not  seem  to  like  it  much ;  but 
I  profited  by  the  short  time  allowed  us — for  his  wagon  had  gone 
on  in  the  mean  time,  and  I  had  a  long  day's  march  before  me 
— to  give  him,  in  as  few  words  as  possible,  a  just  punishment 
for  his  own  neglected  prophecies,  by  the  most  horrible  description 
of  the  mines  I  could  imagine ;  and  I  was  a  sort  of  authority  ai 
present,  as  I  was  just  returning  from  them.  His  face  became 
longer  and  longer,  and  when  I  saw  him  in  a  kind  of  petrified  des- 
pair, I  shook  hands  with  him,  bade  him  a  hearty  farewell,  and 
walked  on. 

At  daybreak  next  morning  I  shot  a  very  large  brown  wolf — a 
much  larger  species  than  I  ever  had  found  in  the  States ;  I  was 
just  resting  a  little  on  an  old  log,  when  he  came  through  the 


204  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD, 

plain,  and  stopping  right  in  the  road — only  a  little  distance  off — 
looked  at  me.  I  could  do  nothing  with  it  though,  for  I  wanted 
to  reach  Stockton,  for  fear  of  missing  the  steamer  for  San  Fran- 
cisco ;  but  there  was  no  necessity  for  my  hurrying,  and  I  could 
have  taken  the  walk  more  at  my  leisure.  No  steamer  started 
that  day,  and  all  I  could  do  was  to  walk  about  the  town,  to  see 
what  little  I  could  there. 

There  was  a  great  deal  of  business  transacted  in  Stockton  at 
this  time  ;  boats  arrived  every  day,  bringing  goods  and  provisions 
for  the  mines  ;  and  round  the  little  town,  it  really  looked  like  a 
Mexican  camp,  for  every  where  the  night-fires  blazed,  and  every 
spot  of  good  grass  was  occupied  by  mule-droves,  just  come  in  from, 
or  ready  to  start  for  the  mines  again. 

I  amused  myself  by  visiting  the  different  gambling-houses  this 
day.  Many  of  them  were  quite  new,  some  hardly  furnished  with 
every  thing  necessary,  to  be  paid  for  afterward  by  the  hard-earned 
money  of  some  foolish  diggers ;  but  nearly  all  of  them  had  pic- 
tures in  them  to  attract  the  notice  of  the  passers-by ;  and  those 
who  had  been  able  to  buy  it,  had  most  certainly,  at  least,  one 
larger  painting  in  oil,  representing  a  female  figure  with  as  little 
clothing  as  possible.  You  could  find  the  same  at  San  Francisco 
in  every  gambling  hell,  and  the  farther  you  went  in  the  interior, 
the  more  indecent  these  pictures  became,  becoming  in  the  mines 
the  most  obscene  points  ;  while  even  the  largest  hotel  and  gam- 
bling-house in  Stockton,  the  "El  Dorado,"  with  the  finest  saloon 
in  town,  and  just  opposite  the  landing,  in  the  most  frequented 
part  of  the  place,  had  the  most  obscene  kind  of  oil-painting  right 
over  the  bar.  There  was,  it  is  true,  no  danger  of  ladies  frequent- 
ing, or  even  entering  such  a  low  place,  but  every  decent  man 
would  also  turn  away  in  disgust  from  such  a  shameless  sight. 
Those  gambling-houses  are  now  to  California  what  slave-holding 
is  to  the  United  States. 

One  of  them  I  visited,  seemed  to  have  been  opened  only  a  few 
days  before  ;  there  was  a  perfectly  new  floor  in  it,  and  the  naked 
walls  were  covered  with  a  light  blue-flowered  calico.  In  the 
middle  of  the  comfortless  room,  a  table,  covered  with  a  piece  of 
green  cloth,  displayed  a  very  small  pile  of  silver-dollars,  and  two 
men  sitting  opposite  one  another  were  shuffling  cards  for  want 
of  a  better  occupation.  All  those  arts  to  entice  green-horns  to 
enter  were  wanting  yet,  if  I  did  not  count  a  little  negro  boy 


THE  MINES,  AND  THE  PEOPLE  IN  THEM.  205 

among  them,  who  was  squatting  in  a  corner,  pulling  away  at  an 
old  screechy  accordion,  to  make  at  least  some  kind  of  noise.  But 
it  was  impossible  for  the  room  to  be  without  some  ornaments  on 
the  wall,  and  the  owner,  in  very  good  taste,  had  bought  just 
half  a  dozen  colored  prints,  all  of  them  representing  one  and  the 
same  young  lady,  with  very  square  shoulders  and  a  very  green 
frock,  an  extremely  high  head-dress  and  wide  baloon-like  sleeves, 
who  had  turned  her  body  to  the  right,  and  her  face  in  such  a  de- 
termined way  over  her  left  shoulder,  that  it  really  looked  as  if 
she  wore  her  face  upon  her  back.  These  six  copies  of  exactly 
the  same  print  over  the  whole  room,  made  an  extraordinary  im- 
pression upon  the  beholder. 

That  night  I  slept  in  the  Stockton  Restaurant,  that  is,  not  in 
a  bed — for  they  had  neither  beds,  nor  room  for  them — but  some- 
where in  the  dining-saloon,  which  was  at  the  same  time  bar  and 
parlor.  I  had  laid  my  blanket,  gun,  and  knife  upon  one  of  the 
small  tables,  while  we  were  at  supper  in  another  corner  of  the 
room ;  talking  and  laughing  afterward  till  late  in  the  evening 
with  a  party  of  new-comers,  who  wanted  to  give  the  mines  a 
trial.  And  when  I  went  to  look  out  for  a  resting-place,  and  was 
going  to  see  to  my  gun,  and  give  that  a  safe  corner  during  the 
night,  one  of  the  owners  of  the  house  an  Alsacian,  stepped  up  to 
me,  and  said  very  politely  : 

"Oh,  would  you  be  so  kind  and  take  those  things  down ;  this 
gentleman  sleeps  on  that  table." 

I  looked  rather  astonished  round  at  the  gentleman,  and  found 
he  did  not  sleep  on  the  table,  but  really  already  stood  before  me. 
He  was  a  tall,  raw-boned,  broad-shouldered  man  in  a  blue  blanket- 
coat,  in  spite  of  the  warm  weather,  another  blanket  under  one 
arm,  and  his  pulled-off  boots  under  the  other,  standing  there  with 
closed  eyes,  and  seemingly  quite  irresolute  whether  he  should 
wait  till  the  bed  was  made,  or  rather  tumble  over  there  where 
he  stood  to  have  his  nap  out.  The  landlord  though,  on  seeing 
me  look  so  long  at  the  rum  customer,  and  thinking  perhaps  I 
wanted  the  table  for  my  own  bed,  remarked,  as  if  excusing  the 
blue  blanket-coat :  "The  gentleman  has  already  slept  seven 
nights  on  that  same  table."  I  took,  of  course,  every  thing  down 
directly.  He  had  most  certainly  a  right  of  pre-emption  ;  but  he 
must  have  looked  at  me  through  his  eyelids,  for  he  never  opened 
his  eyes  a  single  moment ;  and  I  had  hardly  taken  the  last  off, 


206  JOUENEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

when  he  lay  stretched  out  at  full  length  upon  the  boards,  snoring 
away  as  hard  as  he  could.  I  myself  slept  par  terre,  with  him. 

Next  night  1  was  in  San  Francisco,  and  stopped  at  a  fellow- 
passenger's  house,  as  I  only  intended  to  stay  two  or  three  days  in 
town. 

The  second  morning  I  was  awakened  hy  a  wild  and  singular 
noise.  Starting  up  in  bed,  I  stared  round  me,  astonished  at 
seeing  the  room  lighted  up  so  brilliantly.  I  was  half-dreaming 
then,  but  soon  came  to  my  senses  again  ;  and  jumping  out  of  bed, 
dressed  myself  as  quickly  as  possible. 

Fire  !  Fire  in  San  Francisco  !  In  two  minutes  I  was  down  in 
the  street,  and  on  the  Plaza,  and  could  see  here  only  too  well 
with  what  dreadful  power  the  fiery  element  grew  and  raged ! 
It  had  commenced  in  one  of  the  gambling-houses,  and  spreading 
to  the  right  and  left,  the  flame  ran  along  the  tents  and  dry 
wooden  roofs  as  if  they  had  been  pitched  and  tarred  expressly  for 
the  purpose.  With  really  incredible  speed  the  flame  caught 
whole  rows  of  buildings,  leaping  even  across  the  streets,  and 
spreading  fear  and  terror  around.  I  had  commenced  to  help 
saving  the  goods  in  some  houses,  and  carrying  them  across  the 
streets  to  some  safer  place ;  but  it  was  hardly  possible  to  save 
much,  for  when  we  commenced  clearing  a  place,  the  flame  sur- 
rounded and  destroyed  it  in  the  next  five  minutes.  Finally,  and 
in  Dupont-street  as  the  last  point,  we  stopped  the  progress  of  the 
fire  by  tearing  down  some  light  wooden  buildings  ;  and  at  eleven 
o'clock  all  danger  for  the  rest  of  the  town  was  past. 

During  the  night  the  fire  broke  out  again  in  several  places, 
but  only  among  the  half-burnt  stumps  of  some  house-posts,  and 
without  threatening  any  other  part.  But  on  that  same  after- 
noon, and  not  four  hours  after  the  fire,  the  workmen  even  hav- 
ing to  throw  buckets  of  water  upon  the  hissing  ground,  to  quench 
the  burning  ashes,  in  the  midst  .of  smoke  and  destruction,  beams 
and  lumber  were  carried  into  the  very  centre  of  the  burnt  down 
space,  carpenters  commenced  hammering  arid  sawing,  and  next 
morning  a  new  gambling-hell,  of  light  frame- work,  stretched  over 
with  canvas,  was  again  erected,  with  a  laid  floor,  and  bar,  and 
hazard  tables,  and  the  violins  and  trumpets  playing  lustily  away 
over  the  ruin  of  thousands. 

I  should  really  have  felt  thankful  if  a  thunderbolt  had  again 
demolished  the  hut  over  those  miserable  gamblers'  heads,  who 


THE  MINES,  AND  THE  PEOPLE  IN  THEM.     207 

set  up  their  hellish  games  again,  as  if  in  derision  at  every  feeling 
of  humanity. 

Three  days  afterward  I  returned  to  the  mines,  all  my  business 
being  transacted,  and  only  being  delayed  a  couple  of  days  by  the 
effects  of  the  fire.  On  reaching  Stockton,  I  engaged  a  team,  and 
traveled  on,  not  stopping  there  more  than  one  night.  Freight 
had  by  this  time  fallen  to  seven  cents  per  pound. 

The  roads  were  now  excellent,  but  extremely  dusty  ;  and  on 
approaching  the  Calaveres  again,  I  saw  several  empty  ox-carts 
coming  down  toward  us,  enveloped  in  a  cloud  of  dust,  with  the  ob- 
jects in  them  hardly  discernible.  When  I  was  right  opposite  to 
them,  I  could  see  they  were  some  travelers  returning  from  the 
mines  upon  the  first  wagon — a  very  common  way  to  leave  the 
diggings  if  the  parties  have  no  money  to  buy  a  mule,  or  are  too 
lazy  or  old  to  walk. 

"  Halloo,  Sir !"  said  a  voice,  and  stopping  rather  astonished  at 
the  sound  in  the  road,  I  recognized  in  the  two  persons  who  were 
really  coated  with  a  thick  crust  of  dust,  my  former  fellow-travel- 
ers, Mr.  Hillman,  the  razor-strop  man,  and  Jeremiah  Livingston, 
his  faithful  Sancho.  Mr.  Hillman  looked  pale,  at  least  down- 
cast, for  his  complexion  was  entirely  hidden.  Jerry,  however, 
on  the  contrary,  the  very  picture  of  happiness — the  hard  mining 
work  lay  behind  him,  and  he  was  going  back,  as  he  said,  among 
Christians. 

Poor  Hillman  !  your  rosy  plans  had  not  been  realized  then;  on 
the  contrary,  you  had  sold  every  thing,  mule,  and  quicksilver- 
machine,  tent  and  provisions  ;  all  that  was  left  of  your  posses- 
sions, as  far  as  I  could  see  at  least,  being  Jerry  Livingston  and 
the  brown  umbrella.  The  Lord  then  had  not  given  the  gold  for 
his  new  house  of  worship.  But  I  have  reason  to  doubt  whether 
Mr.  Hillman  will  think  himself  now  bound  by  his  promise — given 
in  former  times,  most  certainly  only  under  the  condition  of  safe 
return  and  health. 

The  wagon  stopped  while  I  talked  to  them,  but  the  old  razor- 
strop  man  had  lost  all  his  happiness ;  his  dreams  had  faded  away, 
and  he  had  not  yet  had  time  to  form  new  ones.  He  was  sitting 
comparatively  in  a  blank  at  present.  People  are  not  apt  to  be 
merry  at  such  times. 

That  day  I  left  the  wagons  to  take  a  good  hunt  through  the 
woods,  but  I  could  not  come  within  rifle-shot  of  any  thing  till  next 


208  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

morning,  when  I  shot  a  deer,  but  had  to  leave  it,  as,  although 
mortally  wounded,  it  ran,  or  rather  tumbled  down  one  of  the 
steep  and  lofty  mountain-slopes.  It  would  have  taken  half  a  day 
to  follow  it  and  bring  a  part  of  the  meat  up.'  But  I  met  another 
hunter  and  setting  him  on  the  track,  had  the  satisfaction  of  Tiear- 
ing  afterward  that  he  had  found  the  dead  buck. 

To  say  a  few  words  about  hunting  in  California.  Many  a  man 
would  be  very  much  disappointed  if  he  believed  all  the  stories 
they  tell  him  about  it  in  San  Francisco,  and  then  start,  with 
such  ideas,  to  the  mines.  There  are  places  still  left  where  there 
is  a  good  deal  of  game,  but  if  you  go  there  you  will  find  out  the 
reason  why,  too  ;  for  it  is  a  wilderness  of  swamps  and  tulas — the 
Californian  rushes — in  which  nothing  could  exist  except  the  wild 
beasts  of  the  forest.  In  those  swamps,  which  lie  between  Sacra- 
mento and  the  bay  hills,  or  even  between  Stockton  and  Pueblo 
San  Jose,  and  among  a  rapidly  increasing  population,  you  find 
even  yet,  the  old  grizzly  bear,  the  elk,  and  the  Virginian  deer,  but 
there  are  also  other  places,  where  there  is  no  gold,  man  has  had 
as  yet  no  further  inducement  to  go  there  but  to  hunt ;  and  though 
they  pay  an  excellent  price  for  game  in  San  Francisco,  gold-dig- 
ging has  been  thought  till  now  still  more  profitable,  and  only  few 
had  time  and  money  enough — and  if  they  had  both  of  these — had 
no  idea  of  wading  about  in  the  swampy  tulas  with  the  chance 
of  killing  a  grizzly  bear  or  being  killed. 

The  grizzly  bear  is  the  largest  of  his  kind — a  grim  fellow,  with 
extraordinary  strength,  and  frequenting  the  wildest  parts  of  the 
woods ;  he  is  often  found  weighing  one  thousand  four  hundred 
and  more  pounds,  and  a  blow  with  his  powerful  paws  would  be 
death  to  any  thing  living ;  but  I  am  sure  not  half  those  dreadful 
stories  you  hear  about  them  are  true.  Nearly  every  body  who 
has  shouldered  his  rifle  once,  and  gone  a  little  way  into  the  woods 
— especially  if  he  were  still  rather  green — has  a  bear  story  to  tell 
when  he  comes  out  again ;  and  since  old  Grizzly  never  can  testify 
to  the  contrary,  they  relate  their  feats  with  them  so  often,  that 
they  end  by  believing  them  themselves.  "What  I  heard  from  old 
hunters  about  them — for  it  was  never  my  luck  to  meet  one  in  the 
woods — they  run  like  any  other  wild  beast,  when  they  hear  the 
step  of  man,  or  get  his  scent ;  and  when  wounded  he  sometimes 
grows  angry — and  who  would  not  ?  The  flesh  of  the  young  ones 
particularly  is  said  to  be  very  good,  but  I  never  tasted  it. 


THE  MINES,  AND  THE  PEOPLE  IN  THEM.  209 

Elk  and  Virginian  deer,  and  two  kinds  of  antelopes,  frequent 
the  wide  and  swampy  plains ;  but  in  the  mountains  I  also  found 
an  old  acquaintance,  the  common  hare,  which  does  not  exist  in 
the  eastern  states.  Another  inhabitant  of  Europe,  which  I  never 
saw  in  the  States,  and  which  in  fact  does  not  exist  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  is  the  European  magpie,  exactly 
the  same  in  shape  and  color  as  with  us,  except  that  it  has  a  yel- 
low bill. 

The  only  beasts  of  prey  are  the  small  American  panther,  some 
few  wild  cats,  the  cayotas  or  prairie  wolves,  and  the  large  brown 
wolf,  none  of  them  however  dangerous  to  man  ;  for  if  you  hear 
once  in  a  while  of  a  man  having  been  attacked  by  cayotas,  you 
may  safely  put  it  down  as  a  hunter's  story. 

Snipes,  ducks,  and  geese  are  in  immense  numbers  along  the 
borders  of  the  bay,  and  all  through  the  lower  lands. 

Just  at  this  time  the  new  Californian  law  was  published, 
demanding  from  every  foreign  miner  a  license  of  twenty  dollars 
a  month,  for  the  permission  to  dig  in  the  mines.  A  revolution 
seemed  to  break  out  when  this  law  was  put  in  force,  and  the 
legislature  which  passed  it  ought  to  have  had  more  sense  than  to 
throw  a  firebrand  into  the  country.  The  law  of  course  could  not 
be  upheld,  for  there  were  thousands  who  did  not  even  make  more 
than  their  living,  and  some  not  that,  getting  provisions  on  credit, 
and  not  being  able  to  pay  for  them  afterward ;  but  still  at  first  a 
parcel  of  rowdies  made  use  of  it,  and  where  they  found  single 
foreigners  in  places  they  thought  worth  working,  drove  them  out 
of  them,  sometimes  even  before  the  collectors  had  arrived  in  those 
parts,  to  give  them  at  least  a  chance  of  taking  out  a  license  or 
not. 

The  French  got  up  a  perfect  revolution  just  at  this  time,  and 
a  war  nearly  broke  out  in  the  mines,  while  murders  were  already 
committed  daily  ;  and  all  this  only  on  account  of  a  parcel  of  men 
who  could  not  see  farther  than  their  own  noses,  passing  an  im- 
possible law,  and  strutting  about  and  saying,  "  "We  have  done  a 
great  thing,  we  have  brought  millions  into  the  treasury." 

Some  foreigners,  who  had  just  at  that  time  good  claims,  or 
such  at  least  as  they  thought  rich,  had  to  pay  the  enormous 
license  for  the  first  month,  but  the  law  had  to  be  repealed  directly, 
and  was  altered  afterward  into  twenty  dollars  a  year,  and  the  first 
paid  monthly  license  was  taken  into  account  for  the  whole  year. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    INDIANS    OF    CALIFORNIA. 

IN  the  neighborhood  of  Murphey's  New  Diggings,  a  large  tribe 
of  the  Wynoot  Indians  camped ;  and  though  Americans  not 
unfrequently  tell  dreadful  stories  about  the  treacherous  character 
of  these  natives,  I  never  found  a  more  quiet  and  peaceable  people 
in  any  country  than  they  were. 

When  I  reached  the  camp,  the  squaws — and  a  little  warm 
water  and  soap  would  have  decidedly  improved  their  complexion 
— were  busied  in  getting  the  sumptuous  meal  ready  for  their 
lords  and  husbands,  and  I  had  a  beautiful  chance  of  seeing  the 
simple,  but  also  most  peculiar  way  in  which  they  prepare  their 
dinners.  The  main  part  of  this  seemed  to  consist  of  a  soft  mush 
of  pounded  acorns.  They  had  dug — or,  I  rather  believe,  stamped 
— a  small  flat  hole  in  the  ground,  in  the  shape  of  a  round  and 
deep  dish,  or  a  Java  hat,  or  also  something  like  a  Californian 
washing-pan,  beaten  this  as  hard  as  possible,  and  filled  it  with 
the  acorn-mush,  already  beaten  up  in  one  of  their  waterproof 
baskets.  Upon  this  they  had  placed  some  light  twigs,  as  I  soon 
found,  to  protect  the  bowl  itself,  as  they  placed  hot  stones  into  it, 
which  they  put  upon  the  twigs  to  make  them  sink  slowly  to  the 
bottom.  As  they  also  poured  some  water  in,  to  make  the  mush 
thinner,  these  twigs  prevented  the  fluid  from  damaging  the  bot- 
tom of  the  vessel. 

This  kind  of  poe  was  soon  prepared,  and  I  now  went  toward  a 
small  family,  to  see  it  also  devoured.  Of  course,  I  looked  around 
for  a  spoon ;  for  I  had  thought  up  to  this  time,  that  such  a  thin, 
soup-like  mush,  could  not  be  eaten  in  any  other  way  but  with 
some  instrument  at  least  resembling  a  spoon :  but  a  fat,  jovial 
native  soon  taught  me  better.  He  was,  of  course,  the  husband 
of  the  lady  who  brought  him  the  basket  filled  with  the  soup, 
which  she  had  ladled  out  with  a  flat  calabash ;  and  taking  the 
basket  between  his  knees,  and  trying  first,  rather  carefully  with 


THE  INDIANS  OF  CALIFORNIA.  211 

one  finger,  if  the  mush,  had  cooled  enough  to  be  eaten,  he  shoved 
the  four  fingers  of  his  right  hand  into  it,  and  then  put  them, 
apparently  with  the  utmost  satisfaction,  into  his  wide  and  hos- 
pitably-opened organ  of  mastication,  out  of  which  they  came 
directly  afterward  clean  and  shining,  and  ready  to  repeat  the 
operation,  till  he  had  nearly  finished  half  the  basket.  The 
thumb  looked  on  all  the  time,  accompanying  the  other  four  fin- 
gers down  and  up  again,  and  only  acting  as  a  kind  of  preventa- 
tive  to  hinder  the  hand  from  disappearing  entirely. 

When  he  had  finished  his  meal — that  is,  when  he  could  eat  no 
more — he  leaned  back  groaning  upon  his  seat ;  I  thought  then 
that  a  sip  of  brandy  would  aid  his  digestion,  but  he  took  the  bot- 
tle rather  distrustfully,  and  swilling  twice  at  it — the  second  time 
far  more  carefully  than  the  first — he  handed  it  back  to  me,  while 
trying  to  make  rne  understand  by  signs  that  he  would  tumble 
about  if  he  drank  that  stuff,  and  become. sick.  To  show  me  his 
gratitude,  however,  he  pushed  the  basket  with  acorn-mush  toward 
me.  to  benefit  by  a  similar  application  of  my  fingers  to  the  poe ; 
but  I  declined  the  hospitable  offer  with  partly  the  same  fears  as 
he  entertained  about  the  brandy.  The  squaw  and  the  children 
soon  after  took  the  basket  between  them ;  and  it  was  a  treat  to 
see  the  way  the  large  and  little  fingers  went  into  it  and  out 
again. 

While  I  was  standing  there  a  couple  of  pretty  young  girls  came 
from  the  woods,  with  flat  baskets  full  of  flower-seed  emitting  a 
peculiar  fragrance,  which  they  also  prepared  for  eating.  They 
put  some  live  coals  among  the  seed,  and  swinging  it  and  throw- 
ing it  together,  to  shake  the  coals  and  the  seed  well,  and  bring 
them  in  continual  and  close  contact  without  burning  the  latter, 
they  roasted  it  completely,  and  the  mixture  smelled  so  beautiful 
and  refreshing  that  I  tasted  a  good  handful  of  it,  and  found  it 
most  excellent. 

They  also  brought  great  pine-apples — that  is,  real  pine-apples 
— with  a  nut-like  kernel,  and  many  other  delicacies,  such  as 
roasted  grasshoppers  and  baked  wasps,  &c.,  which  I  was  too 
poor  a  connoisseur  to  do  justice  to. 

The  Indians  on  the  whole  American  continent,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  those  farthest  north,  perhaps,  whose  acquaintance  I  never 
had  the  pleasure  of  forming,  have  an  indubitable  family  likeness. 
The  color  of  the  natives  from  Canada  down  to  Cape  Horn,  does 


212  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

not  vary,  in  fact,  so  much  in  its  shades  of  brown,  through  all  the 
climes  from  the  cold  to  the  temperate  and  torrid,  and  back  again 
through  temperate  and  cold,  as  it  does  in  the  far  smaller  Austra- 
lian continent ;  and  they  all  have  the  long  smooth  black  hair,  the 
prominent  cheek-bones,  and  the  dark  eyes.  They  differ,  of  course, 
in  their  stature,  and  life,  and  habits ;  nourishment  and  climate, 
were  a  very  essential  cause  for  it. 

But  if  the  natives  of  California  resemble  the  Eastern  tribes  in 
stature  and  complexion,  they  do  not  most  assuredly  in  warlike 
character,  for  they  are  really  the  most  harmless  tribes  on  the 
American  continent ;  let  white  people,  who  have  driven  them  to 
desperation,  say  what  they  please  against  it.  Their  weapons,  if 
nothing  else,  plainly  show  this  :  they  have  no  offensive  arms  at 
all,  except  bows  and  arrows,  and  these  are  small  and  powerless. 
The  bow  is  not  quite  three  feet  long,  of  rather  fragile  wood,  but 
covered  with  the  broad  back-sinew  of  the  deer  or  ox.  The  arrows 
are  about  two  feet  long,  with  sharp  points  cut  out  of  a  kind  of 
volcanic  glass  or  rock.  They  wear  a  quiver  made  of  the  skin  of 
some  wild  animal,  fox,  cayota,  or  racoon,  sometimes  even  of  their 
dogs,  in  which  they  never  carry  more  than  ten  or  twelve  arrows. 
They  go  nearly  naked,  those  at  least  who  have  not  come  into 
much  contact  with  the  whites ;  but  in  this  case  they  are  nearly 
always  fond  of  some  part  of  European  dress.  But  dress  is  no 
necessity  for  them,  even  in  the  coldest  weather ;  and  I  have  seen, 
on  nasty  wet  and  cold  days,  Indians  standing  together,  one  or 
two  wrapped  up  tightly  in  a  thick  and. warm  woolen  blanket, 
while  others  had  nothing  in  the  world  around  them,  offering  their 
naked  hides  to  the  inclemency  of  the  weather,  and  apparently 
not  a  bit  colder  than  the  others. 

" Don't  you  feel  cold,  Indian?"  an  old  backwoodsman,  who 
was  wrapped  up  in  a  warm,  comfortable  blanket-coat,  once  asked 
a  North  American  Indian,  who  was  trudging  along  the  hard, 
frozen  road,  with  nothing  upon  his  back,  but  a  thin  and  tattered 
calico  hunting-shirt,  as  he  passed  him  on  horseback. 

"  Do  you  feel  cold  in  face  ?"  the  Indian  asked  in  his  short  and 
broken  way. 

"  No,  not  in  my  face,"  the  white  man  answered. 
"  "Well — me  face  all  over  !"  the  Indian  said  with  a  grin. 
But  as  much  as  I  like  to  see  an  Indian  in  his  native  dress  or 
ornaments,  be  it  as  scanty  as  possible,  equally  funny  and  disfig- 


THE  INDIANS  OF  CALIFORNIA.  213. 

ured  do  they  look,  when  they  put  on  European  clotnes.  They 
frequently  have  no  idea  for  what  purpose,  and  in  what  order 
they  ought  to  be  worn.  First,  a  dress-coat,  and  then  a  waist- 
coat, then  part  of  a  shirt,  or  a  waistcoat  by  itself,  or  a  pair  of 
trowsers,  or  three  and  four  pair  of  them,  at  the  same  time,  they 
do  not  care ;  and  they  admire  a  uniform  most,  red,  if  possible, 
with  gold  or  silver.  I  frequently  saw  Indians  in  the  greatest 
heat  with  three  pair  of  trowsers,  th»  upper  ones  pulled  up  as 
high  as  they  could  get  them,  the  second  pair  rolled  up  to  their 
knees,  and  the  undermost  left  to  their  natural  length,  to  let  all 
men  see  what  a  splendid  wardrobe  they  called  their  own,  and 
could  afford.  Cravats  for  garters,  shirt-collars  point  downward, 
waistcoats  buttoned  behind,  and  other  mistakes  continually  occur  ; 
and  like  children  they  hang  upon  them  what  they  can  get,  and 
sometimes  even  what  they  can  buy  with  hard-earned  money,  till 
they  get  tired  of  it,  and  throw  it  aside. 

The  women  also  like  to  dress  like  European  females,  but  as 
they  never  wash  their  dresses,  they  looked  rather  the  worse  for  it 
after  the  first  two  or  three  days.  They  most  frequently,  though, 
when  they  want  something  beside  their  usual  wide  and  long 
apron  of  dressed  deer-skins — which  is  colored  and  fringed  exactly 
as  the  North  American  Indians  prepare  them — throw  a  piece  of 
calico  around  them,  in  the  same  way  as  the  Spanish  ladies  use 
their  mantilla. 

Their  government  is,  like  that  of  their  Eastern  brethern,  hered- 
itary chieftainship ;  and  while  all  the  single  tribes  have  their 
own  "  capitano,"  as  they  now  call  them,  at  least  if  conversing 
with  white  men  about  them,  several  tribes  together — as  for  in- 
stance, those  on  the  southern  waters  of  the  Stanislaus,  Calaveres, 
and  Magualome — recognize  a  principal  chieftain  as  their  supreme 
head,  who  in  all  cases  has  to  decide  such  matters  and  difficulties 
as  arise  between  whites  and  Indians. 

At  that  time  their  first  chief  lived  on  the  Calaveres,  and  was 
called  Jesus. 

As  to  their  religion,  I  never  could  find  out  what  they  believed. 
Those  Indians  close  to  the  missions  were,  or  had  been  at  least, 
Christians ;  but  farther  up  in  the  mountains  nobody  had  cared 
about  them,  and  in  fact  I  hardly  think  they  troubled  themselves 
about  it.  I  never  saw  idols  among  them,  or  spoke  to  any  body 
who  had  ;  and  what  I  could  learn  about  their  superstitions,  they 


.  214  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

only  believe  in  some  evil  spirits,  who  can  do  them  harm,  and 
whom  they  adore  to  retain  their  friendship. 

There  would  be  a  field  for  missionaries ;  there  are  numbers  of 
souls  to  be  saved,  and  in  arm's  reach,  too,  of  hundreds  of  preachers 
of  all  sects,  Presbyterians  and  Methodists)  Baptists  and  Roman 
Catholics ;  there  they  could  do  all  those  things  missionaries  like 
to  write  about  so  frequently,  undergo  hardships,  and  even  dan- 
gers, only  for  Christ's  sake*;  but  that  is  the  very  reason  they  do 
not  go,  because  it  would  be  "  only  for  Christ's  sake."  There  are 
no  territories  to  be  won,  there  are  no  natives  to  be  enticed  into 
building  comfortable  houses  for  the  Christian  teachers,  they  would 
have  to  lead  a  wild  life  with  them,  no  farther  profit  in  view,  as 
is  the  case  with  the  South  Sea  Islands,  but  only  the  prospect  of 
being  driven  with  their  pupils  from  one  place  to  another,  living 
on  grubs,  acorns,  and  other  indigestible  things ;  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  a  comfortable  life  and  a  good  income  look  far  more 
inviting.  What  wonder  then  you  do  not  hear  a  word  about  mis- 
sionary zeal  in  California,  but  see  subscriptions  daily  raised  in 
San  Francisco,  to  erect  churches  and  meeting-houses  in  the  city 
— among  the  Christians. 

But  they  are  right ;  for  what  would  be  the  use.  of  saving  those 
few  souls,  whose  bodies  will  soon  be  driven  under-ground  ?  why 
take  the  last  of  the  poor  hunters  away  from  the  merry  hunting- 
grounds  of  their  forefathers  ?  The  Indians  of  California  no  longer 
exist  in  reality,  though  a  few  scattered  tribes  may  wander  about 
yet  in  the  distant  hills,  looking  toward  the  setting  sun,  down  upon 
a  country  which  was  once  their  own,  and  where  the  ashes  of  their 
forefathers  were  given  to  the  balmy  breeze,  or  buried  under  the 
shady  oaks  of  the  plains. 

To  prove  to  the  reader  that  I  am  not  exaggerating,  I  will  only 
tell  him  one  case  I  was  witness  of  myself,  to  see  how  the  Indians 
are  treated  in  the  mines,  and  in  what  way  those  stories  arise, 
which  are  told  about  Indian  aggressions  ! 

On  the  2d  of  July,  1850,  a  black  fellow — that  is,  not  a  negro, 
but  a  Bombay-man,  of  rather  dark  complexion  for  that  race — 
came  running  into  a  little  mining  place,  Douglas  Flat,  on  the 
same  creek  Murphey's  New  Diggings  lay  on  ;  two  Indians  were 
following  him,  but  when  they  saw  he  had  taken  shelter  with  the 
whites,  they  left  off  their  pursuit,  and  walked  back.  But  the 
India-man  now  told  a  dreadful  story,  how  the  natives  had  taken 


THE  INDIANS  OF  CALIFORNIA.  215 

hold  of  him,  and  robbed  him  of  nineteen  hundred  dollars  in  gold 
dust.  Some  Texans,  who  where  accidentally  in  the  trader's  tent 
the  Bombay-man  had  sought  shelter  in,  and  possibly  guided  more 
by  the  hope  of  getting  the  nineteen  hundred  dollars,  than  of  help- 
ing the  "  nigger,"  as  they  called  him,  gave  chase  directly ;  and 
the  natives  hardly  saw  white  men  with  their  rifles  in  their  hands 
start  after  them,  before  they  knew  only  too  well  what  they  had 
to  expect  from  their  mild  pursuers,  and  fled  to  the  hills,  and  their 
own  camp.  But  they  had  some  old  Texan  woodmen  after  them, 
with  legs  as  tough  and  strong  as  their  own,  to  follow  even  through 
the  rough  and  uneven  ground  of  the  hills ;  and  on  reaching  the 
camping-place  of  their  tribe,  and  thinking  perhaps,  far  more 
whites  on  their  track  than  there  really  were,  they  only  called  to 
their  comrades  to  take  up  their  arms  and  flee  with  them  farther 
into  the  thicket.  Even  the  women  had  hardly  time  to  snatch 
up  their  babies  and  save  themselves  from  a  hostile  attack  for 
which  they  could  assign  no  cause. 

Several  other  whites  had  followed  the  first,  and  while  the 
Texans  ran  after  the  two  natives,  who,  as  they  madly  and  fool- 
ishly thought,  must  have  the  gold,  the  others  without  even  inquir- 
ing if  the  poor  wretches,  who  were  now  chased  like  beasts  of  the 
forest,  had  done  any  harm,  set  fire  to  their  little  camping-place, 
and  maliciously  burned  the  provisions  and  blankets,  as  well  as 
the  only  shelter  the  poor  natives  had  raised  for  themselves  in  the 
woods ;  and  had  it  not  been  for  some  other  men,  an  American 
and  a  German,  who  had  also  followed  to  see  what  was  the  mat- 
ter, and  who  scattered  the  fire  before  it  had  destroyed  more  than 
about  half  of  the  little  village,  every  thing  that  tribe  before  pos- 
sessed, would  have  been  devoured  by  the  greedy  flames. 

The  Texans,  at  last,  when  they  saw  they  could  not  overtake 
the  fleeter  natives,  fired  several  times  at  them,  and  they  sent 
back  a  shower  of  arrows,  but  of  course  without  doing  the  least 
harm,  as  they  had  to  keep  off  as  far  as  they  could  for  fear  of  the 
bullets,  and  a  distance  of  seventy  or  eighty  yards  made  their  light 
arrows  powerless.  At  last,  one  of  the  Texans,  heading  the  tribe 
as  they  followed  up  a  narrow  gulch  to  the  top  of  the  hill,  got  in 
shooting  distance,  and  taking  deliberate  aim  at  one,  shot  him 
in  the  back,  from  tke  low  hill  where  he  was  standing.  The  poor 
fellow  fell,  but  the  others  carried  him  off;  and  as  the  wood  be- 
came thicker  here,  the  Texans  returned  to  the  camp. 


216  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

Next  day  a  delegation  from  the  Indians  came  into  Stouten- 
burgh,  to  inquire  what  they  had  done  that  the  whites  should 
make  war  upon  "them,  and  to  tell  the  alcade  there — for  they 
knew  he  was  the  capitano  of  the  whites — one  of  their  numher 
had  been  shot,  and  their  village  burnt  by  some  of  their  white 
brethren. 

A  jury  was  sworn  to  go  up  to  the  ridge  on  which  the  Indians 
had  now  taken  shelter ;  and  when  we  reached  the  spot,  where 
the  women  looked  at  us  in  fear  and  despair,  and  the  men  in  hate 
and  anger,  though  they  did  not  use  their  weapons  against  us,  we 
found  the  poor  fellow  who  had  been  shot  the  day  before,  standing 
upright  under  a  tree.  He  had  just  raised  himself  when  he  heard 
of  our  coming,  for  I  could  see  the  bloody  spot  where  he  had  lain 
a  little  while  before.  His  wife  was  supporting  him,  and  death 
was  written  on  his  countenance.  The  bullet  had  entered  his 
back  close  to  the  back-bone,  and  seemed  to  have  lodged  inside, 
and  had  followed  a  slanting  direction  from  a  higher  place,  some- 
where on  the  hip-bone.  We  had  a  doctor  with  us  (as  the  man 
called  himself),  but  he  could  do  nothing  for  the  poor  fellow ;  and 
after  hearing  what  account  the  Indians  could  give  of  the  whole 
matter,  and  seeing  on  our  return  the  burned  camp  with  our  own 
eyes,  a  trial  was  to  be  held  next  day  upon  the  Bombay-man. 

When  we  left  the  hill,  and  the  wife  of  the  poor  Indian,  who 
had  probably  thought  white  men  sufficiently  skilled  in  the  art 
of  medicine  to  heal  the  wounds  they  had  inflicted,  now  saw  them 
give  him  up,  she  commenced  wailing  over  the  murdered  man ; 
and  while  the  wounded  native  again  lay  down  under  the  tree, 
her  shrill  cries  filled  the  air.  I  ran  down  the  hill  as  fast  as  I 
could,  to  be  out  of  hearing  of  those  dreadful  sounds.  I  was 
ashamed  of  being  a  white  man  at  that  moment. 

Next  day  a  jury  sat ;  but  the  Bombay-man  understood  no  En- 
glish, at  least,  he  pretended  not  to  do  so  now.  Still  every  thing 
was  proved  against  him,  and  some  traders  from  the  next  camp 
stood  up  as  witnesses  against  him,  stating  on  their  oath  that  the 
nigger  had  not  had  even  money  enough  with  him  the  night  be- 
fore to  pay  for  his  drink,  and  they  had  kicked  him  out  of  the 
tent.  As  it  now  appeared,  the  fellow  had  reached  the  night  be- 
fore the  Indian  camp,  where  he  was  hospitably  received ;  but  in- 
sulting the  women,  he  was  first  repulsed,  and  then,  not  being 
satisfied  with  a  first  lesson,  driven  out  of  the  camp  by  the  men. 


THE  INDIANS  OF  CALIFORNIA.  217 

Afterward,  I  believe,  he  had  again  returned,  and  the  natives  had 
followed  to  chastise,  but  not  to  rob  the  rascal. 

The  trial  of  the  Bombay-man  was  interesting,  for  nobody  spoke 
his  language,  while  he  himself  pretended  not  to  understand  a 
word  of  English ;  though  one  of  the  Yankees,  a  raw  down-easter, 
tried  once  to  play  the  interpreter,  by  bawling  to  him  in  English 
— which  he  thought  the  foreigner  must  understand,  because  he 
himself  understood  nothing  else.  But  it  was  no  go,  and  with  cir- 
cumstantial proof  enough,  they  condemned  him  to  twenty-five 
lashes,  of  which  the  sheriff  gave  him  thirteen  the  next  morning 
— accidentally  the  4th  of  July — and  one  of  the  Indians  the  rest. 
But  the  natives  were  not  satisfied  with  this,  and  swore  they  would 
kill  him  for  raising  a  false  cry  against  them  ;  and  the  sheriff  had 
to  keep  him  that  night  after  the  punishment  in  his  own  tent. 
When  they  led  him  out  to  receive  his  lashes  though,  the  poor 
devil  was  perfectly  convinced  they  were  going  to  hang  him,  and 
he  begged  for  his  life  bitterly. 

This  was  one  of  the  common  Indian  wars.  "  The  natives  had 
shot  with  arrows  at  the  whites,  and  were  driven  back  into  their 
mountains,"  so  the  accounts  ran  ;  though,  in  reality,  the  whites 
behaved  worse  than  cannibals  toward  the  poor,  inoffensive  creat- 
ures, whom  they  had  robbed  nearly  of  every  means  of  existence, 
and  now  sought  to  trample  under  foot. 

But  enough  of  this  misery.  The  time  is  not  far  distant  when 
the  Indians  of  this  immense  territory  will  have  ceased  to  exist ; 
arid  it  will  then  be  interesting,  at  least,  to  know  something  of  the 
tribes,  if  we  did  not  care  for  them  when  living. 

The  character  of  these  Indians  in  their  mode  and  way  of  liv- 
ing, is  exactly  the  same  as  with  their  eastern  brethren,  and,  in 
fact,  with  nearly  all  wild  tribes.  The  husband  follows  the  chase, 
and  the  wife  has  to  collect  insects  and  seeds,  or  fruits,  prepare 
the  frugal  meals,  rear  the  children,  carry  the  bundles  and  fire- 
wood, and,  in  fact,  do  nearly  every  thing,  while  their  lord  walks 
about  at  his  leisure  with  his  light  bow  and  arrow.  But  though 
this  seems  unjust,  it  is  necessary  ;  for  in  a  state  of  society  where 
the  lives  of  the  family  depend  upon  the  success  of  the  hunter,  he 
must  have  his  arms  free  and  unencumbered  for  action  at  every 
minute,  and  dare  not  toil  under  a  heavy  load,  for  it  would  make 
his  aim  unsteady. 

But  the  gold  discovery  has  altered  their  mode  of  life  materi- 

K 


218  JOURNEY  HOUND  THE  WORLD. 

ally;  they  have  learned  to  want  more  necessaries,  while  the 
means  of  subsistence  diminishes  in  the  mean  time ;  and,  driven 
at  last  to  a  thing  they  had  never  thought  of  before,  the  Califor- 
nian  Indian  now  really  does  work.  At  first,  in  fact,  in  right  good 
earnest,  and  even  for  the  whites ;  and  though  some  tribes  princi- 
pally the  northern  ones,  can  yet  be  hired  for  a  short  time,  the 
southern  nations  have  given  it  up  again,  and  only  work  now 
rarely  in  families,  nearly  always  to  buy  brandy  for  the  gentle- 
men— in  families,  I  say,  for  it  is  with  these  natives,  as  with  all 
other  lazy  people,  whenever  they  do  work  they  can  not  bear  to 
see  an  idle  person  around  them,  and  women  and  children  have 
to  be  as  busy  as  bees  in  such  cases.  Still  they  do  not  like  to  dig 
deep  holes,  and  as  they  only  in  very  rare  cases  can  find  gold  near 
the  surface,  they  nearly  always  try  to  get  into  places  where  white 
men  have  commenced  digging,  and  are  not  very  particular 
whether  they  have  finished  or  not.  They  very  cunningly  wait 
for  this  purpose  till  the  whites  have  gone  to  dinner,  watching  them 
in  the  morning,  and  jumping  into  the  holes  as  soon  as  they  have 
left.  The  men  take  the  miners'  tools  and  work  out  the  ground 
with  the  pickax,  while  the  women  and  children  carry  it  off  in 
their  pans  to  the  water  and  wash  it  out.  If  the  miners  return, 
upon  a  sign  given  by  their  sentinel,  they  all  disappear ;  and  the 
diggers  sometimes  find,  where  they  had  hoped  to  come  to  a  good 
spot,  a  far  greater  space  worked  out  for  them  in  an  hour  or  two 
than  they  had  desired.  But  the  poor  fellows  can  only  earn  very 
little  in  this  way ;  and  whatever  it  be,  they  are  cheated  out  of  it 
again  by  the  next  trader  they  have  to  deal  with. 

They  lay  in  provisions  for  winter-time,  principally  the  sweet 
acorns  of  the  plains,  but  also  the  bitter  ones  of  the  mountains, 
which  they  bury,  ag  I  was  told,  a  certain  time  in  the  ground  to 
remove  the  bitter  and  unpleasant  taste.  Besides  these,  their 
woods  are  rich  enough  in  many  other  wild  fruits  ;  for  instance, 
hazel-nuts,  currants,  grapes,  cherries,  strawberries,  whortleberries, 
and  many  others,  which  they  know  how  to  dry  and  keep.  The 
cherries  deserve  particular  mention,  for  they  grow  in  a  peculiar 
way,  like  grapes,  but  on  a  tree  similar  to  ours.  They  belong  to 
the  sour  species,  and  taste  exceedingly  well. 

.  Their  habitations  are  as  simple  as  possible,  and  consist,  in  sum- 
mer-time especially,  only  of  bush-huts,  to  ward  off  the  hot  rays 
of  the  sun  ;  in  the  winter  sen  son,  with  some  tribes,  of  bark-huts  ; 


THE  INDIANS  OF  CALIFORNIA.  219 

with  others,  as  on  Feather  River,  of  huts  made  m  a  more  sub- 
stantial way,  of  posts  and  earthen  walls,  and  roofs. 

They  have  also  a  method  of  rubbing  fire  with  two  sticks  of 
wood,  but  they  do  not  use  one  piece  of  hard  and  another  of  soft 
wood,  for  the  purpose,  as  is  commonly  supposed,  but  two  soft 
pieces,  lying  one  down,  and  putting  the  other  into  it,  and  using 
it  like  a  twirling  stick,  till  the  rubbed  off  fine  powder  ignites 
very  much  in  the  same  way  as  tinder. 

And  what  will  be  the  end  of  these  tribes  ?  As  an  answer,  I 
will  give  the  reader  only  the  last  part  of  a  declaration  of  one 
of  the  United  States  agents  for  Indian  affairs,  who  had  been 
authorized  to  lay  down  several  tracts  upon  which  the  expelled 
Indians  could  reside  unmolested,  and  who  had  been  afterward 
accused  by  the  greedy  gold-seekers,  of  having  overstepped  his 
authority,  and  given  the  red  men  the  "  best  claims." 

"  A  younger  population  is  allowed  to  enter  our  land  and  col- 
lect the  riches  of  our  soil.  It  does  not  contribute  any  thing  to 
support  the  state,  but  returns  whence  it  came,  encouraging  others 
to  do  the  same.  Notwithstanding,  these  very  men  deny  the 
Californian  Indian,  and  former  legitimate  owner  of  the  soil" — 
and  I  should  think,  in  righteousness,  not  only  the  former  but  the 
present  owner — "  the  right  of  working  here,  or,  at  least,  of  stay- 
ing upon  the  spot  which  was  once  his  own.  A  population,  per- 
fectly strange  to  them,  a  great  part  of  it  even  strangers  to  us,  has 
taken  possession  of  their  former  homes,  destroyed  their  hunting- 
grounds  and  fisheries,  burnt  down  their  acorn  groves,  and  cut 
them  ofF  from  all  those  means  of  subsistence  a  kind  Providence 
had  created  for  their  maintenance,  and  taken  away  from  them 
the  possibility  of  existing.  But  not  satisfied  with  that,  these  men 
deny  them  even  the  right  we  have  granted  to  the  paupers  and 
convicts  of  the  whole  world — viz.,  the  right  of  working  and  ex- 
isting. 

"  I  am  convinced  nobody  could  take  the  whole  soil  and  ground 
I  have  reserved  for  the  use  of  the  Indians,  and  pay  the  taxes 
thereon. 

"0.    M.    WOZENCRAFT. 
"U.   S.    INDIAN    AGENT,    MIDDLE    DISTRICT,    CAL." 


CHAPTER  VII. 

LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    IN    THE    MINES. 

THEY  lead  a  most  singular  life  in  the  mines  :  and  on  reaching 
one  of  these  places,  let  it  have  the  best  name  in  the  "world  for  its 
riches,  you  see  nearly  as  many  quitting  it  as  arriving.  The  hope- 
ful come,  the  dissatisfied  depart,  to  try  their  fortune  elsewhere  ; 
and  where  one  gang  may  have  given  up  a  place  in  despair  and 
disgust,  others  jump  in  and  dig  away  lustily,  not  merely  expect- 
ing, but  feeling  confident  that  they  will  soon  discover  a  lump  of 
many  ounces. 

At  this  time  rumors  were  continually  afloat  through  all  the 
mines  of  rich  placers  being  found  at  various  spots  :  they  talked 
of  a  gold  lake  on  the  Yuba,  then  layers  of  gold  had  been  discov- 
ered in  a  flat  on  some  creek  till  that  time  unknown,  and  the  dig- 
gers were  kept  in  an  almost  indescribable  state  of  excitement, 
which  even  disappointment  after  disappointment  could  not  check. 
At  times,  however,  really  rich  placers  were  discovered,  and 
thousands  would  then  flock  together  from  all  parts,  and  all  the 
busy  signs  of  life  might  be  seen  suddenly  in  a  hitherto  quite  wild 
and  desolate  district. 

Some  Mexicans  had  discovered  in  a  similar  way  the  true  value 
of  a  flat,  worked  up  to  that  time  continuously,  but  not  a  suffi- 
cient depth  to  arrive  at  the  richest  layer  of  clay  ;  this  event  soon 
became  known  in  Murphey's  Camp,  and  Carson's  Flat  became 
the  general  cry. 

It  was  a  most  singular  sight  to  watch  the  different  groups  that 
hurried  from  all  the  neighboring  mines  to  this  place.  The 
swarthy  Mexicans  with  their  party-colored  ponchos  or  scrapes, 
the  multitude  of  pedestrians  with  their  tools  and  blankets  slung 
on  their  backs,  the  carts  with  provisions,  the  horsemen  galloping 
in,  the  droves  of  mules,  partly  ridden,  partly  laden  with  freight ; 
if  the  stream  had  continued  for  only  one  month  the  same  as  dur- 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  IN  THE  MINES.  221 

ing  the  first  two  days,  Carson's  Flat  would  have  contained  in  its 
narrow  valley  the  gold-seeking  population  of  all  California. 

The  first  thing  gold-seekers  have  to  do  in  such  a  case  as  this, 
is  to  mark  a  "  claim" — a  spot  which  they  think  likely  to  con- 
tain gold  ;  and  in  twice  twenty-four  hours  the  whole  valley  was 
checkered  with  squares,  indicating  places  which  were  suspected 
to  contain  gold,  and  pickaxes,  shovels,  and  crowbars  stuck  in 
them  as  if  they  had  grown  there.  I  never  saw  such  a  field  of 
iron- ware  in  my  life. 

As  mixed  as  the  population  now  was  in  general,  there  were  a 
great  many  Americans  there  too ;  and  since  some  of  the  holes 
had  turned  out  exceedingly  well,  especially  those  worked  by  for- 
eigners, it  may  be  easily  imagined  how  disagreeable  such  a  sight 
must  have  been  to  a  parcel  of  men  who  could  not  profit  by  it, 
and  who  most  probably  had  even  arrived  too  late  to  obtain  a  good 
claim  in  the  lower  places — for  the  hill-slopes  had  been  marked 
already  like  chess-boards — and  the  very  first  evening  we  passed 
there,  a  meeting  was  called  together  to  alter  the  state  of  things 
— in  favor  of  Americans,  of  course. 

I  have  seen  many  a  wild  American  meeting — I  have  been  at 
presidential  elections  in  the  States — and  that  of  General  Harrison 
beat  cock-fighting,  as  the  Americans  themselves  acknowledged — 
I  had  been  a  witness  of  the  squatter-meetings  in  Sacramento 
city,  but  never  saw  any  thing  to  equal  this. 

One  short  and  sturdy  fellow  in  particular — with  fiery  red  hair, 
I  am  sorry  I  have  forgotten  his  name — was  the  principal  orator. 
The  gentlemen  present  at  the  meeting  agreed  directly  to  drive 
all  the  foreigners  out  of  their  claims — one  even,  the  red-haired 
one,  proposing  to  give  them  twenty  minutes  time  to  leave,  though 
I  do  not  know  what  he  expected  to  do  with  them  afterward  ; 
they  at  last  granted  twenty-four  hours  notice  to  quit,  but  nobody 
could  tell  what  to  do  with  the  recovered  placers  afterward,  for 
each  of  them  wanted  to  benefit  himself,  and  did  not  know  ex- 
actly how  to  secure  a  good  situation.  Finally,  they  came  to  the 
determination  that  all  the  recovered  claims  should  be  sold  by 
public  auction ;  but  then  again  what  should  be  done  with  the 
money  ?  Benevolent  or  charitable  purposes  were  not  necessary, 
where  every  body  took  such  good  care  of  himself,  and  still  it 
was  proposed  to  elect  a  committee  of  five  men  to  divide  it ;  but 
it  proved  nonsense.  Some  suggested  a  lottery  of  the  claims, 


222  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

every  American  to  have  a  free  ticket ;  but  they  wanted  an  auc- 
tion, and  an  old  fellow,  with  a  pair  of  green  spectacles  and  an  ex- 
traordinary sharp-pointed  nose,  seemed  to  understand  the  wants 
of  the  moment  best,  for  he  proposed  to  build  a  court-house  and 
jail  here  in  the  mountains  with  the  money !  There  was  really 
a  short  debate  about  this  mad  project,  for  the  gentleman  in  the 
green  spectacles,  most  likely  a  jail-keeper  from  some  of  the  States, 
defended  his  crazy  project  to  the  last.  Finally,  they  decided  on 
having  neither  lottery  nor  auction,  but  that  each  should  take 
possession  of  a  claim  wherever  he  thought  proper. 

Next  morning  the  minutes  of  the  meeting  were  posted  every 
where  through  the  camp  in  English  and  bad  Spanish,  but  only 
some  Mexicans  packed  up  and  left  the  place  to  try  their  fortune 
elsewhere,  the  others  staid  where  they  were ;  and  those  young 
gentlemen  who  were  so  excited  on  the  previous  evening  walked 
about  grumbling  in  the  flat,  and  cursing  the  committee  they  had 
elected  to  warn  the  foreigners  off,  and  who  could  only  be  found 
in  the  morning  digging  away  in  their  own  claims. 

We  ourselves  worked  there  several  days,  but  water  being  so 
scarce  in  this  particular  spot,"  all  had  to  procure  it  for  cooking 
and  drinking  purposes  from  muddy  pools,  and  the  dry  digging 
was  hard  work ;  so  we  soon  got  tired  of  it.  The  mines,  how- 
ever, proved  very  rich  afterward,  and  several  gangs  acquired  for- 
tunes out  of  single  claims. 

"We  returned  to  Murphey's  Diggings,  and  set  to  work  there 
again,  but  though  they  bore  the  name  of  being  rich,  their  repu- 
tation was  only  kept  up  by  the  traders,  who  had  quantities  of 
stores  and  provisions  there,  and,  of  course,  wanted  persons  to  buy 
them. 

Our  life  here,  being  that  of  the  common  miner — sleeping  in  a 
tent,  and  cooking  our  own  meals  with  tolerable  regularity  from 
such  things  as  were  brought  from  below — time  passed  slowly, 
while  hard  work  was  going  on  steadily.  Gold  digging  ! — yes,  the 
name  sounds  well  enough,  if  it  were  not  connected  with  so  much 
ground  digging.  There  are  pleasanter  tools  to  handle  than  pickax 
and  spade,  and  people  with  a  little  lively  imagination  only  too  often 
picture  to  themselves  such  a  business,  as  they  please  to  call  it,  in 
far  too  glowing  colors.  Even  for  those  who  are  used  to  hard 
work,  it  is  no  pastime  to  stand  up  to  their  knees,  perhaps,  in  icy- 
cold  spring  water,  while  the  hot  rays  of  the  sun  play  upon  their 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  IN  THE  MINES.  223 

heads,  and  work  away  at  the  same  time  as  if  for  life,  since  the 
water  must  be  kept  out,  and  each  minute's  rest  has  to  be  paid 
for  with  so  much  harder  baling.  Ground  work  in  itself,  even 
digging  ditches  and  cellars,  is  a  laborious  task,  and  there  you 
have  room  to  move ;  how  much  harder  must  it  be  here,  where 
you  are  blocked  up  in  some  narrow  hole,  perhaps  with  large 
quartz  or  flint  stone  blocks  which  you  can  not  manage,  baling 
away  for  a  time,  and  digging  the  ground  off  as  hard  as  you  can 
from  the  little  spot  you  have  freed  for  a  moment  from  water. 

But  however  tedious  and  toilsome  the  life  may  be,  it  has,  on 
the  other  hand,  a  great  many  interesting  features  in  the  wild,  and 
peculiar  scenery,  company,  circumstances,  and  characters  ;  and  a 
person  who  principally  finds  pleasure  in  noticing  and  watching 
these,  who  can  sip  the  honey  from  the  flower,  and  leave  the  poison 
behind,  or  gather  sweets  enough  at  least  to  drown  the  bitter 
taste,  will  be  able  to  enjoy  such  a  life  in  the  mountains,  at  least 
for  a  time,  even  if  he  is  not  so  lucky  in  digging  as  he  may  de- 
sire. Still,  it  must  not  last  too  long,  or  it  will  get  tiresome  in 
spite  of  all.  But  I  will  introduce  the  reader  to  some  of  my  ac- 
quaintances. 

The  most  funny  sample  in  the  crowd  was  a  little  bit  of  a  Ger- 
man tailor,  called  Johnny  or  Napoleon,  according  to  circum- 
stances. The  minikin  flattered  himself  that  he  possessed  an  ex- 
traordinary likeness  to  Napoleon  ;  and — who  would  now  blame 
him  for  it  ? — he  even  wore  his  hat  cocked  in  a  similar  manner, 
and  would  stand  for  half  an  hour  with  folded  arms.  He  was  at  the 
same  time  the  most  disorderly  and  loose  little  tailor  the  mines 
could  boast  of,  as  long,  at  least,  as  he  had  money  to  play  the 
gentleman  ;  but  hardly  was  the  last  dollar  gone,  when  he  took 
up  pickax  and  spade  with  equal  ardor,  and  worked  away  again 
as  if  for  life.  He  was  born  in  Alsace,  and  always  preferred 
being  considered  a  Frenchman.  He  also  spoke  French  whenever 
he  could  get  a  chance,  and  felt  most  pleased  when  you  called 
him  Jean. 

During  the  Mexican  war,  perfect  swarms  of  deserters  had 
come  over ;  and  all  the  volunteers  who  had  been  sent  to  Califor- 
nia by  the  States,  even  before  the  discovery  of  the  gold  mines, 
could  have  been  found  here,  I  really  believe  to  the  last  man. 

One  morning,  on  going  to  work,  I  met  a  gentleman  in  a  black 
dress-coat — a  thing  really  never  even  thought  rf  in  the  mines — a 


224  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

fine  silk  hat,  kid  gloves,  and  carefully  blackened  boots,  but  carry- 
ing, like  the  rest  of  us,  a  heavy  pickax,  shovel,  and  wash-pan.  I 
hate  to  stop  in  the  street  arid  look  after  a  man  on  account  of  his 
dress — let  every  body  wear  what  he  pleases — but  I  actually  did 
stop  to  look  after  that  black  dress-coat ;  it  was  really  an  event  to 
see  such  an  object  in  the  mountains. 

"  A  sight  of  such  a  swallow- tailed  coat  is  good  for  sore  eyes 
up  here  in  the  mines,"  said  an  old  Irishman,  who  was  standing 
beside  me,  watching  the  tails  as  they  disappeared  behind  the 
tents  ;  "  bless  its  black  carcass,  but  I  wonder  how  the  gentleman 
will  look  in  a  week  !" 

These  had  been  my  thoughts  also,  and  I  now  inquired  who 
the  stranger  was.  Nobody  knew  much  about  him,  but  he  was 
thought,  or  in  fact  called  an  attorney,  who  had  come  up  here  to 
the  mines  with  the  firm  intention  of  picking  out  the  little  and 
large  lumps  from  the  dry  crevices  of  the  rock  with  a  common 
case-knife  into  his  washing-pan,  without  pulling  off  his  gloves. 
For  three  days  he  had  traveled  about  in  the  nearest  gulches  with 
his  knife  and  pan,  without  even  earning  his  living,  or  even  see- 
iug  a  single  speck  of  gold,  and  he  was  now  walking  down  the 
creek,  obliged  to  try  his  fortune  with  pickax  and  shovel,  in  com- 
mon miner's  fashion. 

For  a  fortnight  I  saw  nothing  of  the  man,  but  one  morning  at 
daybreak  I  met  him  the  second  time,  and  what  a  condition  he 
was  in.  His  clothes,  though  cleanly  in  the  extreme,  were  torn 
in  shreds ;  his  boots  were  brushed,  though  the  cracked  and  sat- 
urated leather  no  longer  bore  a  polish  ;  and  his  face  looked  pale 
and  haggard. 

Not  merely  hard  and  unusual  work,  but  disappointment  and 
shattered  hopes  had  broken  his  spirit.  He  had  come  up  to  the 
tents  to  procure  some  necessary  provisions,  and  had  chosen  such 
an  early  hour,  I  think,  to  shun  man's  eye.  As  I  learned  after- 
ward, he  had  not  been  able  to  make  his  living  in  the  mountains  ; 
and  having  no  money,  and  being  too  grand  to  ask  any  man  for 
help,  had  walked  back  to  Stockton,  and  thence  round  the  bay 
to  Puebla  San  Jose  and  San  Francisco. 

Besides  this  specimen  with  fine  kid  gloves,  we  had  another, 
but  without  a  swallow-tailed  coat,  who  also  walked  about  in  the 
mines  with  a  very  sombre  arid  downcast  look  ;  his  face  seemed 
familiar  to  me,  though  I  tried  in  vain  to  remember  where  I  could 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  IN  THE  MINES.  226 

have  seen  him  before.  I  could  only  learn  that  he  was  a  Chilean 
who  kept  tying  thick  woolen  shawls  around  his  neck  at  night5 
and  talked  much  to  himself;  hut  a  week  or  two  afterward  the 
murder  came  out.  He  was  the  first  tenor  singer  from  Valpa- 
raiso, whom  I  had  heard  there  in  the  theatre,  and  who  now 
recalled  his  former  triumphs  and  pleasant  days  under  the  double 
infliction  of  a  dreadful  cold  and  deep  repentance.  1  was  told  he 
had  said  this  was  the  worst  engagement  he  had  ever  had  in  his 
life. 

A  couple  of  preachers,  a  Methodist  and  a  Presbyterian,  also 
walked  about  in  a  rather  forlorn  state  ;  they  had  made  an  essay  in 
preaching,  but  though  people  went  to  hear  them  sometimes,  they 
would  not  be  convinced  of  the  necessity  of  paying  for  a  preacher  ; 
and  as  we  find  in  the  present  age  only  very  few  men  who  really 
teach  the  gospel  for  Christ's  sake  alone,  the  two  pious  brethren 
had  long  given  up  preaching  to  the  heathen  as  a  bad  job.  And 
with  the  natives  they  would  have  nothing  at  all  to  do— should 
they  live  upon  acorns  and  young  wasps,  and  sleep  in  the  wet  woods 
all  for  nothing  ?  They  did  not  find  sufficient  encouragement. 

Up  in  Stoutenburgh  lived  an  old  negro,  who  took  in  washing, 
but  never  gave  it  out  again.  Washing  was  very  dear,  as  the 
reader  may  think,  and  we  had  usually  to  pay  half  a  dollar  apiece 
for  shirts,  and  even  could  not  get  them  done  for  that  frequently ; 
but  this  old  fellow  washed  them  for  twenty-five  cents  apiece — of 
course  only  washed,  and  not  ironed — and  lived  exceedingly  well 
by  it.  But  the  old  negro  was  also  a  character.  Having  given 
him  my  first  washing  (five  or  six  shirts,  as  I  washed  the  socks 
myself),  I  went  at  the  appointed  time  to  get  them  back,  and 
Sambo,  when  I  asked  him  where  they  were,  merely  pointed  to- 
ward a  large  pile  of  clean  shirts,  some  five  or  six  dozen  perhaps, 
and  told  me  to  pick  mine  out  of  them.  Who  on  earth  could  have 
found  his  own  out  of  such  a  number  ?  nearly  all  the  shirts  worn 
in  the  mines  being  white  or  blue  striped  of  one  pattern,  sent  out 
from  the  States  in  thousands  of  dozens,  and  none  of  them  marked, 
of  course ;  so,  after  turning  the  pile  over  and  over  again  for  at 
least  half  an  hour,  I  gave  it  up,  and  took  six  of  the  shirts  I  liked 
best,  telling  Sambo  what  I  had  done.  He  very  quietly  answered, 
"  Ebery  gen'leman  did  the  same,"  and  I  walked  off  with  them, 
wondering  what  the  man  would  say  who  came  last,  and  got  all 
the  torn  ones. 

K* 


2-2<i  JOURNEY  HOUND  THE  WOELD. 

Just  at  this  time,  and  in  the  immediate  neighborhood,  a  great 
many  murders  were  committed,  and  the  bodies  plundered.  The 
mines  did  not  prove  so  rich  as  many  in  their  golden  day-dreams 
had  expected.  Thousands  of  rascals  from  all  countries  and  climes 
had  come  over  here  with  the  strong  determination  to  make  money 
in  any  way,  arid  those  who  came  to  the  mines  and  could  not  suc- 
ceed as  easily  as  they  had  expected,  were  not  inclined  to  leave 
again  as  poor  as  they  had  arrived,  but  were  fully  determined  on 
getting  their  share,  though  it  should  be  steeped  in  blood.  Men 
were  frequently  found  out  their  tents  or  huts  with  their  brains 
knocked  in  by  a  crow-bar,  some  were  shot,  but  the  first  were 
decidedly  in  the  majority. 

The  Americans  generally  tried  to  lay  these  crimes  on  old  Aus- 
tralian convicts,  and  most  of  them  were  probably  committed  by 
them,  since  the  worst  known  vagabonds  in  the  neighborhood  of 
our  mines  were  a  couple  of  Irishmen,  who  had  come  over  from 
Australia ;  but  Mexicans  were  proved  guilty,  or  suspected  at  least, 
of  many,  and  principally  the  crow-bar  murders.  Signs  of  Mexicans 
having  done  the  deed  were,  however,  found  rather  too  frequently 
near  the  slain  victims  not  to  give  just  cause  for  suspicion  that 
men  of  some  other  nation  tried  to  escape  in  this  way.  Still  I  have 
no  doubt  many  Mexicans  committed  such  deeds,  especially  if  they 
could  at  the  same  time,  revenge  themselves  upon  an  American. 
Thousands  of  Mexicans  swarmed  into  the  mountains  ;  wherever 
they  discovered  a  rich  placer,  and  Americans  came  upon  them, 
the  latter  were  almost  sure  to  drive  them  out  of  their  claims,  and 
from  their  work,  in  order  to  take  advantage  of  their  labor.  No 
wonder  the  Mexicans  were  driven  at  last  to  desperate  deeds,  arid, 
as  it  only  too  frequently  happens  in  such  cases,  the  innocent  had 
to  suffer  for  the  guilty. 

In  the  neighborhood  of  Sonora,  a  French  and  Mexican  camp, 
which  had  grown  up  into  a  little  town  (even  boasting  a  printing- 
office,  the  first  in  the  mines,  where  the  "  Sonora  Herald"  appeared), 
the  most  murders  were  committed ;  and  things  assumed  for  a  little 
while  such  a  threatening  aspect,  as  to  drive  the  people  to  several 
meetings,  and  a  determination  at  last  to  help  themselves.  But 
what  could  be  done  against  a  band  of  midnight  murderers,  whose 
worst  members,  just  as  likely  as  not,  were  sitting  in  the  very 
council,  consulting  about  a  sure  remedy  for  the  evil  ?  and  the 
foreigners,  of  course  had  to  suffer  again  They  were  ordered  out 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  IN  THE  MINES.  227 

of  the  camp,  principally  the  Mexicans ;  even  their  arms  were 
taken  from  them,  and  for  several  weeks  the  country  was  in  such 
a  state  of  excitement,  that  nearly  every  body  expected  a  civil  war. 

But  the  storm  passed  over,  murders  became  rarer — several  of 
them  were  brought  home  to  Americans — the  first  fervor  of  the 
licence  law  also  weakened,  and  matters  began  to  acquire  once 
more  a  peaceful  aspect — that  is,  considering  circumstances,  for 
hardly  a  night  passed  without  some  bloody  quarrel,  even  in  that 
little  spot,  Stoutenburgh.  One  night  I  was  roused  out  of  my  bed 
to  be  shot,  by  a  drunken  Irishman,  with  a  horse-pistol,  loaded 
with  buck-shot.  We  counted,  next  morning,  seven  small  holes 
in  the  side  of  the  tent  where  I  had  been  standing  when  he  fired 
at  me.  I  also  had  my  rifle  in  my  hand,  but  the  sleeping  traders 
who  lay  around  us  in  their  thin  tents,  and  whom  I  feared  to  hit, 
prevented  me  from  sending  a  ball  through  him  ;  and  when  I  ran 
toward  him,  he  disappeared  in  the  broken  ground  outside  the 
tents,  but  he  never  showed  his  face  afterward  at  Murphey's. 

Stoutenburgh  was  quite  a  little  town.  We  had  there,  at  least, 
fifty  store-tents,  three  American,  and  several  French  boarding- 
houses  (one  ounce  per  week  the  charge  for  boarding),  two  drug 
stores  or  doctor's  shops,  about  twenty  monte,  roulette,  rouge-et- 
noir  tables,  &c.,  &c.  ;  a  bowling-alley,  where  a  man  could  roll 
three  balls  for  a  quarter  of  a  dollar ;  and  even  a  post-office — 
private,  of  course  ; — and  all  these  accommodations  in  tents,  with 
the  American  colors  fluttering  in  the  fresh  mountain  breeze  upon 
the  sheriff's  canvas  abode. 

But  the  store-tents  do  not  make  a  town  in  the  California!! 
mountains — the  mines  must  do  it ;  and  where  these  are  not  able 
to  support  a  numerous  population,  the  inhabitants,  always  ready 
for  a  move  at  a  minute's  warning,  throw  their  blankets  and 
working  tools  upon  their  backs,  or  on  their  packing  mules,  and 
travel  in  search  of  another  El  Dorado. 

Such  was  the  case  with  Murphey's  rich  diggings,  which  began 
to  prove  the  reverse,  and  the  storekeepers  saw,  in  mute  despair, 
each  morning,  new  troops  of  worn-out  miners  leaving  the  place 
to  seek  elsewhere  other  and  better  yielding  gulches. 

Something  must  be  done  if  they  would  not  be  left  here  alone 
with  their  provisions.  A  new  placer  had  to  be  discovered,  at 
least  new  reports  to  be  spread,  and  since  reports  by  themselves 
would  no  longer  draw— -for  the  storekeepers  of  every  other  mine 


228  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

tried  the  same  experiment — something  extraordinary  had  to  be 
got  up. 

One  morning,  the  gangs,  just  ready  to  move  or  striking  their 
tents,  were  startled  by  the  news  that  one  of  the  Texan  Compa- 
ny, a  man  of  the  name  of  Fletcher,  had  discovered  or  invented  a 
goldometer,  with  which  he  was  able  to  follow  the  golden  vein  on 
the  surface  of  the  ground — this  same  goldometer  having  also  been 
the  cause  why  the  gang  with  which  he  worked  had  been  so  pros- 
perous. 

Such  was  the  tale,  and  it  took  amazingly.  Partly  struck  tents 
were  raised  again,  and  every  body  wanted  to  see  Fletcher,  the 
gold  man,  and  have  a  place  shown  to  him  to  commence  again 
with  pick  and  spade. 

Fletcher  was  an  American — I  have  forgotten  from  what  State 
— who  had  lately  come  from  Texas  by  the  land  route.  He  was 
a  tall,  broad-shouldered  fellow,  but  with  a  stoop  in  his  back,  and 
a  sallow,  nearly  livid,  countenance.  He  was  dressed  backwoods 
fashion,  and  had  been  a  very  quiet,  inoffensive  man  up  to  this 
time,  with  a  certain  way  of  doing  things  that  gave  him,  even  in 
his  gang,  a  kind  of  superiority  over  the  rest.  In  this  same  quiet 
way,  he  now  asserted  that  he  had  discovered,  rather  than  invented 
— as  he  had  accidentally  hit  upon  the  secret — an  instrument 
which  he  called  a  goldometer,  and  with  which  he  pretended  he 
was  able  to  find — even  offering  a  bet  of  one  hundred  dollars  on 
the  result — a  purse  of  gold  wherever  hidden  under  the  limits  of 
an  acre  of  ground. 

This  man  being  asked  by  the  miners  to  show  them  a  specimen 
of  his  art,  went  to  the  back  part  of  the  town,  not  twenty  yards 
from  some  of  the  houses,  to  a  spot  where  I  myself  had  dug  a  lit- 
tle garden  the  previous  summer  ;  and  after  going  through  a  kind 
of  necromancy  with  his  goldometer,  suddenly  struck  upon  a  spot, 
and  followed  the  gold  vein,  in  a  zig-zag  line,  down  the  sloping 
spur  of  the  hill,  through  the  little  garden  I  have  mentioned. 

That  morning,  any  stranger  who  arrived  accidentally  at  Mur- 
phey's  New  Diggings,  would  have  thought  the  people  there  as 
rnad  as  March  hares — they  upset  each  other  in  their  perfectly 
crazy  hurry  to  run  for  their  tools  and  mark  a  spot.  Some,  form- 
ing parties,  left  a  man  sitting  on  a  particular  place  to  keep  it 
for  them  till  they  could  get  a  pickax  to  mark  it  out ;  and  they 
commenced  at  it  as  if  they  were  certain  of  finding-  the  sought-for 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  IN  THE  MINES.  229 

lump  right  under  their  very  feet.  Fletcher  also  marked  off  a  spot 
for  himself  right  among  the  diggers,  arid  those  nearest  to  him 
would  not  have  sold  their  chances  for  many  ounces.  He  did  not 
work  himself  as  yet.  He  wanted  to  see  first  how  deep  the  gold 
lay,  but  the  laborers  had  to  pay  him  a  kind  of  per  centage. 

They  went  to  work  in  good  earnest,  and  several  hundred  men 
were  now  employed  upon  a  spot  as  long  as  daylight  lasted,  and 
with  as  much  zeal  as  if  their  lives  depended  upon  their  success, 
where  none  of  them  had  thought  of  digging  before,  though  it  had 
lain  undisturbed  before  their  very  eyes.  And  they  dug  day  after 
day,  but  no  gold  gladdened  their  sight,  and  several  parties  had 
toiled  through  the  flint-like  ground  to  a  depth  of  sixteen  feet, 
before  any  one  of  them  began  to  grow  tired.  Some  then  began 
to  shake  their  heads,  for  not  the  least  sign  of  gold  rewarded  them 
for  their  hard  labor  ;  but  they  had  dug  so  far,  they  could  riot 
stop  now  and  let  others,  anxious  enough  to  jump  into  their  claims 
as  soon  as  they  gave  them  up,  earn  the  reward  they  had  toiled 
for. 

And  thus  they  dug  till  their  holes  were  twenty-five  feet  deep, 
but  no  gold.  They  would  dig  no  farther,  and  the  bubble  seemed 
fated  to  burst  before  the  time,  for  the  traders  had  not  sold  half 
their  provisions  yet ;  but  Fletcher  proved  to  possess  a  good  head 
for  such  a  stratagem,  for  he  had  other  strings  to  his  bow.  When 
the  dissatisfied  came  to  his  tent — and  it  is  nearly  incredible,  that 
men  in  every  other  respect  so  reasonable,  could  be  fooled  in  such 
a  way — he  mesmerised  one  of  them,  and  this  man,  endowed  with 
a  kind  of  supernatural  spirit,  of  course  told  the  eager  multitude 
that,  before  reaching  the  lucky  spot,  they  must  dig  about  ten  feet 
deeper — that  is,  nearly  thirty-five  feet,  and  there  they  would 
find,  it  was  true,  about  ten  feet  of  water,  which  they  must  keep 
out  with  their  pumps,  but,  at  the  same  time,  in  the  marked  holes, 
twenty-five  pounds,  troy  weight,  of  gold. 

They  did  not  require  to  hear  any  thing  more.  At  it  they  went 
again  with  fresh  vigor,  and  some  dug  down  to  a  depth  of  thirty- 
five,  even  forty  feet,  till  they  had  to  give  up  the  claims,  without 
having  found  the  least  sign  of  gold,  through  their  inability  to 
work  any  longer  against  the  powerful  stream  of  water,  which 
made  further  digging  impossible. 

Fletcher  himself,  of  course,  did  not  wait  for  the  final  result, 
but  disappeared  a  day  or  two  before  with  his  goldometer,  and 


230  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

Murphey's  New  Diggings  received  their  death-blow.  The  store- 
tents  stood  empty,  the  bowling-alley  was  used  for  a  hay-stack, 
and  even  the  gamblers — the  carrion-birds  of  the  mines — left  the 
neighborhood  to  seek  better  places.  But  the  store-keepers  had 
got  all  they  could  expect  from  the  people  •  the  greater  part  of 
their  provisions  were  sold,  and  the  rest  they  would  have  no  diffi- 
culty in  removing. 

Several  other  tricks  were  afterward  tried,  but  they  possessed 
no  attracting  power — the  mesmerism  had  been  rather  too  strong ; 
and  when  I  last  saw  Murphey's  New  Diggings,  the  place  looked 
deserted  and  desolate. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  MUSQUITO  GULCH  AND  MAGUALOME. 

WHEN  the  various  miners  at  Murphey's  rich  diggings  spread 
in  nearly  every  direction  to  find  better  working  places,  our  little 
company  thought  of  doing  the  same,  and  our  next  resting-place 
was  to  be  the  Magualome,  or  Macalome,  one  of  the  tributaries 
of  the  San  Joaquin,  in  the  gulches  of  which  many  a  rich  placer 
had  been  already  discovered.  Our  march  did  not  offer  many 
interesting  incidents  ;  leading  a  pack-horse — which  carried  our 
working-tools  and  blankets,  for  provisions  were  every  where  so 
cheap  in  summer-time,  that  it  was  not  worth  while  to  carry 
them  with  us — we  marched  along  down  one  creek  and  up  an- 
other, passing  miners'  tents  and  small  diggings  scattered  through 
the  woods,  some  in  work,  some  entirely  deserted ;  and  here  and 
there,  in  perfectly  dry  gulches,  where  no  other  miner  would  think 
of  looking,  or  at  least  of  trying  for  gold,  small  parties  of  Mexi- 
cans were  at  work,  looking  distrustfully  at  the  strangers,  who 
stopped  in  their  neighborhood — for  they  were  so  frequently 
robbed  of  their  claims — and  only  giving  short  answers  to  the 
questions  a  passer-by  might  ask  them. 

"  Mucho  oro  aqui?"  Americans  would  frequently  inquire  of 
them,  and  the  never-changing  answer  of  the  Mexicans  would  be 
in  their  quiet,  singing  voices  : 

"  Si,  poquito,  Senor ;"  and  there  was  an  end  to  the  conversa- 
tion, for  the  Americans  could  ask  no  more,  it  was  all  the  Span- 
ish they  knew,  and  the  Mexicans  never  thought  of  prolonging 
such  a  conversation. 

We  saw  them  here  putting  the  dry  hard  earth  into  their  round 
wooden-bowls — the  only  diggers,  in  fact,  who  carried  and  used 
wooden  wash-pans — rubbing  the  earth  into  dust  with  their  hands, 
and  then  blowing  it  away  from  the  heavier  gold ;  but  it  requires 
the  lungs  of  a  Mexican  to  do  that  longer  than  a  quarter  of  an 
hour. 


232  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD, 

The  Mexicans,  I  had  formerly  heard,  were  lazy  and  indolent, 
but  I  must  acknowledge  I  never  saw  more  industrious,  and  at 
the  same  time  temperate  people  in  the  mines  than  they  were. 
They  are  steady  at  work,  digging  away  at  some  lonely  spot,  or 
driving  pack-mules  up  and  down  the  valleys.  They  are  always 
peaceable  and  good-humored,  and  if  they  are  at  times  treacherous, 
they  probably  have  cause  for  it. 

If  they  are  digging  in  flats  or  hill-sides,  they  hardly  ever  ex- 
cavate large  holes,  but  work  down  in  a  small  one  to  the  gold- 
containing  earth,  using  for  this  purpose  hardly  any  thing  but  their 
short  and  light  crow-bars  and  pans,  and  digging  away  afterward 
underground  in  the  clay  which  contains  the  precious  metal,  like 
moles.  This  kind  of  work  is  called  "cayotirig"  in  the  California 
mines,  from  the  little  prairie  wolves,  or  cayotas,  which  also  dig 
their  holes  or  caves  under  ground. 

A  most  singular  case  occurred  once  between  some  Mexicans 
and  Germans  in  one  of  the  southern  mines,  where  tolerably  rich 
diggings  had  been  found.  The  gold- seekers  established  a  law 
among  themselves  as  to  how  many  square  feet  an  individual 
should  be  allowed  to  claim  in  a  certain  rich  flat.  Some  Mexi- 
cans were  working  one  portion,  and  at  a  considerable  distance 
from  them  two  Germans  had  opened  a  claim,  and  thrown  up 
their  ground  to  work  their  hole  down  in  the  common  and  least 
dangerous  way,  for  many  a  Mexican  has  dug  his  own  grave, 
with  cayoting  underground.  The  Germans  had  dug  out  in  the 
mean  time  about  seven  or  eight  feet  of  ground,  and  had  just 
reached  a  layer  of  clayey  gravel,  which  they  thought  might  con- 
tain gold,  when  one  of  them,  taking  his  crow-bar,  and  running 
it  into  the  clay,  struck  through  it,  and  heard  below  him — under- 
ground— a  deep  groan.  Dropping  every  thing,  the  two  Ger- 
mans, frightened  nearly  to  death,  fled  for  their  lives,  but  returned 
afterward,  and,  aided  by  some  neighbors,  who  all  made  a  rush 
for  the  hole  to  see  the  miracle,  they  soon  found  out  the  real 
cause.  The  Mexicans  had  dug  underground  from  their  own 
claim,  right  over  into  the  very  centre  of  the  Germans'  working- 
place,  from  which  they  had  taken  out  nearly  all  the  gold.  When 
the  miner  struck  down  his  crow-bar,  to  try  if  he  could  feel  the 
rock  below,  he  pierced  through  the  thin  layer  of  earth,  and 
struck  the  Mexican,  who  was  digging  below  him,  on  the  shoul- 
der. They  had,  however,  to  pay  damages  to  the  Germans  for 


MUSQUITO  GULCH  AND  MAGTJALOME.  233 

having  gone  beyond  the  limits  of  their  own  claim  into  that  of 
their  neighbors. 

While  passing  so  many  gulches,  once  clear  and  pure  mountain 
streams,  now  defiled  by  cradles  and  washing-pans,  I  could  not 
help  stopping  sometimes  for  hours,  and  watching  the  troubled 
waters  as  they  oozed  out  from  the  rocky  clefts.  How  have  the 
proud  sons  of  earth  abused  these  pure  and  innocent  children  of 
the  mountains  !  In  former  times  they  sprang  in  crystal  purity 
from  the  arms  of  the  parent  cliffs  into  the  beautiful  valleys  be- 
low, dancing  and  sparkling  in  the  sunny  light — and  now  ?  The 
turbid  stream  stole  sadly  and  mournfully  through  a  desert,  the 
once  flower-clad  banks  had  been  broken  up,  and  the  verdure 
buried  beneath  the  earth  that  had  formerly  nourished  it ;  dark 
and  deep  caves  yawned  now  in  their  stead,  and  the  water  stag- 
nated in  dank  pools.  Gold  can  form  a  paradise  of  a  wilderness, 
but  it  has  shown  here  that  it  is  capable  equally  of  effecting  the 
reverse. 

But,  back  to  our  march  !  There  is  no  poetry  in  gold-digging, 
and  the  wanderer's  every  thought  in  these  mountains  turns  to 
gold  and  the  worth  of  it — what  has  a  miner  to  do  with  othei 
fancies  and  day-dreams  ?  I  became  accustomed  at  last  to  the 
eternal  talk  about  gold  and  ounces  ;  I  could  listen  for  hours  to 
the  most  extravagant  tales  of  newly-discovered  riches  and  El- 
Dorados,  thinking  at  the  same  time  of  something  far  away  from 
me  and  the  speaker ;  but  I  could  never  get  used  to  the  mean, 
selfish  conduct,  miners  are  only  too  apt  to  show  where  their  own 
interest  is — and  how  often  only  seemingly — at  stake ;  they  would 
cheat  their  own  brother  not  unfrequently,  if  they  thought  he 
could  be  the  cause  of  making  them  lose  an  ounce  or  two. 

Thus  we  had  left  Murphey's  Diggings  in  company  with  some 
other  Germans,  with  the  original  intention  of  remaining  together ; 
but  considering  the  thing  over  again,  and  knowing,  as  they 
thought,  a  very  good  place,  where  they  could  wash  about  an 
ounce  daily,  they  sought  some  pretext  to  make  us  leave  without 
them,  sending  two  men  upon  mules  before,  I  fancy,  to  secure 
their  placer.  We  three  saddled  of  course  directly,  and  parted 
company,  but  I  was  sorry  to  see  them  act  so  meanly,  especially 
as  I  had  entertained  a  better  opinion  of  them  before.  They  did 
riot  profit,  however,  by  this  manoeuvre,  for  several  months  after- 
ward, when  we  had  done  very  well  at  the  placer  we  hunted  out 


234  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

for  ourselves,  I  met  some  of  this  party  again  as  poor  as  ever,  and 
looking  out  for  a  spot  to  make  a  living. 

Two  days  afterward  we  reached  one  of  the  most  frequented 
mining  places  of  the  southern  tributaries,  the  middle-bar  of  the 
Magualome  or  Macalome  River.  The  scenery  round  this  lively 
little  mountain  stream  is  beautiful,  and  the  clear  and  impetuous 
current  bounds,  as  in  mad  frolic,  over  large  gravel  and  granite 
blocks,  dashing  down  from  its  own  wild  hills  with  a  force  suffi- 
cient to  carry  away  every  thing  that  hems  its  way.  But  here, 
only  a  short  distance  below,  and  after  passing  hardly  a  mile 
through  a  comparatively  level  country,  it  had  lost  its  savage 
character,  and  glided  along  with  a  murmuring  and  ripling  sound ; 
hardy  miners  had  pent  it  up  in  their  dams,  and  diverting  it  from 
its  former  course,  had  barricaded  themselves  behind  masses  of 
logs  and  rocks,  and  began  to  plunder  the  very  bed  of  its  riches. 
Poor  mortals !  one  night's  rain  in  September,  when  works  had 
been  finished,  on  which  hundreds  had  spent  their  last  cent  and 
their  whole  time  during  the  summer,  raised  the  river  about 
twelve  inches,  and  swept  every  thing  before  it.  The  whole 
company  was  broken  up  for  that  year,  at  least. 

In  none  of  the  mines  I  visited  did  I  find  a  spot  so  romantically 
situated  as  this  little  town  or  mining  place,  whichever  you  please 
to  call  a  small  nest  of  about  fifty  or  sixty  tents,  crowded  together 
in  one  solid  mass  of  cotton  and  arbors.  The  habitations  con- 
sisted, of  course,  as  in  all  the  other  mines,  of  tents,  which  formed 
perfect  streets,  and  ran  down  nearly  to  the  waters'  edge ;  but 
the  streets  were  not  open  to  the  rays  of  the  sun,  but  entirely 
covered  through  the  whole  little  place,  and  for  hundreds  of 
yards,  with  green  bushes.  Even  the  backs  and  the  sides  of  the 
tents  were  guarded  by  these  hedge-like  walls,  and  the  whole 
town  formed  one  wide  and  shady  arbor,  while  the  air  had  free 
admittance  from  every  side  into  the  streets. 

There  was  also  a  great  deal  of  business  going  on  in  the  little 
town  ;  the  merchants  and  bar-keepers  had  their  hands  full  of 
work  from  morning  till  night,  and  in  the  evening  the  gambling- 
tables — always  a  good  sign  for  the  surrounding  mines — were 
crowded.  If  Murphey's  Diggings  had  boasted  of  a  bowling-alley, 
the  middle-bar  sported  a  real  billiard-table  and  a  "  forty-pi aner," 
as  the  backwoodsmen  called  it,  and  a  perfect  crowd  of  hoosiers 
and  other  green  ones  often  stood  round  that  instrument — the  first 


MUSQUITO  GULCH  AND  MAGUALOME.  235 

they  had  ever  seen  of  the  kind — for  hours.  They  reminded  me 
of  the  Indian  in  Arkansas,  who  saw  a  piano-forte  in  that  State 
once,  and  afterward  gave  a  description  of  it,  as  a  four-legged 
animal  with  teeth  like  a  bear,  which  could  open  and  shut  its 
mouth  and  make  the  most  glorious  noise  he  had  ever  heard. 

In  fact,  if  the  miners  were  rich  around  the  place,  every  op- 
portunity was  furnished  for  the  miner  to  spend  his  hard-earned 
money  in  a  light  and  pleasant  way. 

There  were  works  going  on  all  around  this  place  when  we 
passed  it,  even  the  sand  of  the  river-banks  was  washed,  though 
this  yielded  only  a  poor  per  centage  :  but  the  richest  placers  had 
till  now  been  found  in  the  neighboring  gulches,  and  fortunes  had 
been  frequently  taken  out  of  them  by  individuals.  It  is  at  the 
same  time  a  singular,  but  often  noted  fact  through  all  the  mines, 
that  fortune  smiles  the  most  upon  the  greatest  vagabonds  ;  those 
who  are  drinking  and  gambling  half  their  time  had  only  to  jump 
down  into  any  place  and  be  sure  of  finding  a  reward  for  their 
half  hour's  work,  as  if  they  had  toiled  for  months,  while  other 
industrious  and  persevering  men  worked  their  finger-nails  off, 
without  making  frequently  more  than  their  living.  In  this  man- 
ner the  richest  placer  on  the  Macalome,  the  Steep  Gulch,  was 
discovered  by  a  drunken  Irishman,  who  really  tumbled  into  it 
one  night,  slept  where  he  lay,  and  on  coming  to  his  senses  next 
morning,  without  even  getting  up,  commenced  to  poke  about  in 
the  clayey  banks  around  him,  working  out,  after  a  few  seconds,  a 
piece  of  an  ounce  or  two.  In  a  very  short  time  he  made  there — 
keeping  the  place  secret,  of  course — a  couple  of  thousand  dollars  ; 
but  then  going  to  San  Francisco,  he  gambled  and  drank  away 
his  money,  in  accordance  with  his  old  character,  in  a  very  short 
time,  and  went  back  to  the  mines  again  to  try  and  get  more ;  but 
his  secret  riches  having  been  discovered  in  the  mean  time  and 
worked  out,  he  had  to  commence  anew. 

The  works  in  the  river-beds  themselves  were  said  to  be  the 
most  profitable,  but  they  were  also  the  most  uncertain,  requiring 
time  and  capital  to  commence  them,  and  frequently  making  no 
other  return  for  all  these  sacrifices  but  shattered  hopes.  In  this 
very  year  the  early  rising  of  all  the  rivers,  from  the  Stanislaus 
up  to  the  Yuba,  and  even  farther,  destroyed  the  prospects  of  many 
a  mining  company,  and  ruined  thousands. 

But  we  passed  this  little  place  that  same  morning,  and  reached 


236  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

Macalome  Hill,  another  mining  town,  and  famous  for  its  former 
dry  diggings,  where  they  were  just  building  a  bowling-alley  (at 
the  same  time  trying  to  spread  a  report  that  gold  had  been  found 
while  digging  the  run  for  the  alley  on  the  very  top  of  the  hill), 
and  soon  afterward  entered  the  valley  of  Rich  Gulch,  which  wa- 
tercourse we  fol]owed  up  to  its  springs,  and  crossed  over  from  there 
to  Musquito  Gulch,  the  farthest  mines  toward  the  east  on  these 
branches. 

On  Rich  Gulch  we  found  several  fellow-passengers  from  the 
"  Talisman,"  and  were  told  here  that  we  should  meet  on  Musquito 
Gulch  a  whole  nest  of  acquaintances.  And  so  we  did  ;  for  there, 
on  the  top  of  one  of  the  hills,  we  found  a  perfect  German  camp, 
and  put  up  our  tent-poles  close  by  the  side  of  it. 

What  a  mixed  population  these  mines  offer ;  here  we  now  lived 
in  the  very  centre  of  the  wilderness,  a  little  world  of  ourselves,  in 
closest  neighborhood  and  amity,  eating,  working,  and  sleeping  to- 
gether, and  not  caring  more  for  the  world  around  us,  than  if  it 
did  not  exist ;  and  of  what  different  elements  was  the  society  com- 
posed !  I  will  only  take  our  four  little  tents,  which  formed  one 
cluster  among  the  thousands  in  the  wild  mining  districts,  and 
who  were  the  inhabitants  ? 

The  first  gave  shelter  to  a  young  merchant,  a  whitesmith,  and 
a  farmer's  boy,  a  genus  for  which  we  have  in  our  language  the 
very  significant  word  Bauerjunge ;  the  second  to  an  iron-founder 
and  carpenter ;  the  third  to  a  coachman  and  a  carter,  and  the 
fourth  to  a  piano-forte  maker,  a  stone-mason,  and  a  wandering 
author.  A  few  weeks  afterward  there  were  added  to  our  com- 
pany another  merchant,  and  a  young  Danish  count,  allied  in  fact 
to  £he  royal  house  itself. 

The  scenery  was  the  most  sublime  I  had  yet  met  in  the  mines : 
our  little  camp  on  the  very  top  of  a  high  hill,  and  surrounded  by 
a  magnificent  growth  of  pine  and  cedar-trees,  was  as  beautiful  a 
little  spot,  as  comfortable  a  mountain-home,  as  heart  could  wish 
for,  or  enjoy. 

As  we  formed  a  perfectly  social  body,  though  working  in  dif- 
ferent parties,  and  in  different  places,  some  up,  some  down  the 
creek,  the  evening  united  us  usually  round  one  large  fire,  which 
those  had  to  keep  up,  whose  turn  it  was  to  bake  the  bread. 
Sometimes  playing  cards,  sometimes  story  telling  and  singing,  we 
passed  many  a  frolicsome  night  under  those  old  trees,  while  the 


MUSQUITO  GULCH  AND  MAGUALOME.  237 

moon  rose  over  the  dark  mountains,  lost  in  wonder  as  to  what 
those  noisy  little  human  beings  out  here  in  the  wilderness  were 
about,  making  such  a  disturbance  beneath  the  sombre  shade  of 
the  wild  forests. 

We  also  had  singular  characters  enough  in  these  hills,  though 
the  miners'  tents  were  only  scattered  singly  through  the  valleys  ; 
among  others  a  Pole,  a  nasty  disgusting  fellow,  who  had  come 
over  from  Texas  to  make  a  fortune,  and  continually  grumbled  at 
finding  nothing ;  the  conclusion  of  nearly  all  his  remarks  on  this 
subject  being  :  "  It  is  impossible  for  a  poor  man  to  get  any  thing 
any  how.  The  Almighty's  will  be  done,  I  can't  help  it !"  and 
then  came  an  oath. 

The  farmer's  boy,  who  had  come  over  with  us  in  the  "  Reform," 
and  who,  when  he  stepped  upon  the  shores  of  California,  had  not 
a  red  cent  in  his  pocket,  and  was  obliged  to  work  on  the  road 
first  a  while,  only  to  pay  his  passage  into  the  mines — a  boy,  who 
had  lived  at  home  most  certainly  upon  dry  bread  and  potatoes, 
tasting  meat,  perhaps,  once  or  twice  a  week,  had  been  very  for- 
tunate as  long  as  he  dug  in  the  gulches,  and  now,  in  fact,  did 
not  know  how  to  throw  away  his  money  quick  enough.  If  he 
got  into  a  spree,  which  had  never  been  his  case  in  former  days, 
nothing  would  satisfy  him  now  but  champagne,  and  in  one  night 
it  frequently  cost  him  more  than  he  had  formerly  earned  in  four  or 
five  years. 

One  young  merchant  of  the  name  of  Meier — of  course  there 
were  five  Meiers  in  the  neighborhood — was  one  of  those  thousand 
heedless  characters  you  find  principally  scattered  through  the 
mines.  He  had  been,  from  the  time  he  reached  the  diggings, 
with  the  exception  of  the  first  week,  most  fortunate  wherever  he 
struck  down  a  spade ;  and  though  squandering  away  his  money 
at  the  same  time,  in  gambling  and  drinking,  he  could  not  spend 
as  much  as  he  made.  So  laying  up  a  thousand  dollars  in  gold- 
dust,  he  determined  on  leaving  California  and  starting  for  Val- 
paraiso or  Australia,  from  which  latter  place  he  had  originally 
come.  In  Stockton  he  commenced  playing,  and  won  a  couple  of 
hundred  dollars ;  then  went  down  to  San  Francisco,  bought  new 
clothes,  and  paid  his  passage  on  board  a  vessel  bound  for  Valpa- 
raiso, but  went  back  into  town  again,  and  gambled  away  every 
cent  he  had  in  the  world.  He  returned  to  the  ship,  told  the 
captain  his  case,  and  got  half  his  passage-money  back.  This  he 


238  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

also  carried  to  the  monte-table,  and  had  to  borrow  afterward  two 
ounces  from  an  old  acquaintance  to  return  to  the  mines.  He 
came  back  accompanied  by  the  Count  B.,  I  have  mentioned 
before,  and  intending  to  work  with  him.  They  commenced  on 
Rich  Gulch,  but  soon  quarreled  ;  for  B.,  "  having  the  week" 
first  for  cooking,  as  it  is  called  in  miners'  phrase,  bought  a  pound 
of  rice,  and  being  no  judge  in  such  matters,  and  thinking  that 
just  about  the  right  quantity  for  a  meal  for  two  persons,  put  it 
in  a  two-quart  pot,  and  was  perfectly  amazed  to  see  it  come  out, 
after  boiling,  nearly  entire. 

In  September,  and  while  our  luck  was  just  turning — for  we 
had  lately  opened  a  tolerably  good  and  rich  place,  I  was  unfortu- 
nate enough,  in  felling  a  tree  one  night  for  fire-wood,  to  strike 
the  ax  deep  into  my  right  foot.  I  had  cut  no  sinew  or  vein,  and 
was  able  to  walk  some  distance  toward  my  tent ;  but  had  to  lay 
up  for  a  full  fortnight,  even  walking  down  on  crutches  afterward 
for  a  week  to  the  rocking  cradle. 

I  learned  at  that  time  what  it  is  to  have  a  real  friend  in  the 
mountains ;  for  my  partner,  a  German,  of  the  name  of  Haye,  a 
common  stone-mason,  but  a  most  sincere  and  kind-hearted  fellow, 
never  relaxed  in  his  care  and  attention  till  he  had  me  on  my  legs 
again,  and  even  forced  me  to  divide  his  gains  through  these  two 
weeks  in  miners'  fashion.  It  was  miners'  fashion,  it  is  true,  but 
how  few  would  have  followed  it ! 

Three  weeks  after  this  accident  I  was  as  well  as  ever,  the 
wound  having  healed  beautifully  without  the  least  salve  or 
plaster. 

We  now  worked  together  nearly  the  whole  of  October  ;  Haye 
leaving  me  during  the  last  weeks  to  accept  a  situation  in  a  store- 
tent  as  a  store-keeper  and  cook ;  and  I  was  at  least  able,  and 
principally  in  these  last  four  or  five  weeks,  to  wash  out  gold 
enough  to  pay  my  passage  through  the  South  Seas  to  Sydney, 
where  I  had  money  waiting  for  me  again.  The  first  of  Novem- 
ber, therefore,  I  left  the  mines ;  and  it  was  a  happy  day,  when  I 
rolled  up  my  blanket  for  the  last  time  in  the  diggings.  Still, 
however  stoutly  we  may  cling  to  old  habits,  a  feeling  crept  over 
me,  when  I  bade  farewell  to  those  beautiful  mountains,  as  if  I 
had  left  an  old  friend  forever ;  and  yet  how  much  had  I  longed 
for  that  very  moment.  But  this  soon  wore  off,  and  saying  good- 
by  to  all  my  newly-acquired  friends  in  the  gulch,  I  got  a  seat  on 


MUSQTTITO  GULCH  AND  MAGUALOME.  239 

one  of  the  pack-mules  which  come  up  to  the  stores  loaded  with 
goods  and  return  unloaded,  though  they  not  unfrequently  take 
down  passengers  to  Stockton. 

The  reader,  however,  should  not  imagine  a  ride  on  a  mule 
such  a  very  pleasant  trip  ;  I  have  made  many  far  more  agreea- 
ble, for  there  does  not  exist  a  more  obstinate  beast  in  the  wide 
world  than  a  mule.  In  the  first  place  you  ride  upon  a  pack-sad- 
dle, without  stirrups  or  even  bridle,  the  saddle  being  far  too  wide, 
at  the  same  time,  to  allow  you  a  firm  seat ;  and  the  only  way 
you  have  of  letting  the  mule  know  you  want  to  go  ahead,  is  with 
a  switch  you  keep  in  your  hand,  and  which  the  ambitious  animal 
answers  every  time  by  kicking  up  his  hind  legs,  as  if  it  were  go- 
ing to  shake  its  hoofs  off,  while  you  are  forced  to  hold  on  to  the 
hind  part  of  the  saddle  in  the  mean  while.  Another  charming 
feature  is,  that  the  mules  keep  continually  right  in  the  very 
centre  of  the  whole  drove — the  Lord  save  you,  if  the  roads  are 
dusty  ! — and  as  for  stopping  of  your  own  will,  whenever  you  may 
feel  inclined,  and  letting  the  rest  of  the  drove  go  on  in  the  mean 
time — just  ask  the  mule.  Your  animal  will  suddenly  come  to 
a  dead  halt  when  you  least  expect  it,  and  while  you  are  work- 
ing away  upon  its  stern  to  make  it  move  again,  it  starts  off  so 
quickly  and  suddenly,  as  to  make  you  forget  every  thing  else  but 
the  saddle,  which  you  grasp  with  both  hands  to  keep  your  seat, 
dropping  your  whip,  of  course  never  to  see  it  again. 

The  beast  I  rode  really  succeeded  in  spilling  me  twice  on  the 
road,  much  to  the  amusement  of  the  Mexican  drivers,  who  sit 
safely  enough  in  their  real  saddles,  and  they  had  to  stop  the 
whole  drove  to  let  me  mount  again.  I  would  have  walked  with 
pleasure,  only  I  was  afraid  of  straining  rny  hardly-cured  foot  by 
over  exertion. 

Leaving  the  mountains  we  entered  the  plain,  which  had  been 
covered  when  I  crossed  it  the  last  time  with  a  perfect  bed  of 
flowers  ;  but  how  different  did  the  scenery  now  appear.  The 
ground  looked  dry  and  parched,  and  not  a  blade  of  grass  was  to 
be  seen  ;  no  living  thing  was  visible  upon  the  barren  desert,  save 
here  and  there  a  solitary  jackass,  traveling  from  one  dry  bit  of 
straw  to  another,  and  working,  as  it  were,  its  passage  along  the 
hill-slopes.  On  approaching  Stockton  we  also  heard  rather  un- 
pleasant news,  for  the  cholera  was  said  to  be  both  in  this  lit- 
tle mining  place  arid  in  Sacramento  and  San  Francisco,  where 


240  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WOJU.D. 

it  was  committing  dreadful  ravages.  It  is  a  most  unpleasant 
feeling  to  come  out  of  the  salubrious  air  of  the  mountains  into 
an  infected  plain,  fearing  to  inhale  death  with  every  breath  you 
draw,  and  avoiding  the  houses  now,  you  sought  shelter  under,  in 
former  times,  for  the  grim  avenger  may  be  lurking  under  its  low 
roof  and  pouncing  upon  the  new  and  fresh  victim  as  soon  as  he 
comes  within  its  grasp. 

But  people  like  to  exaggerate  ;  where  only  the  signs  of  an  in- 
fectious disease  had  shown  themselves  most  likely,  they  asserted 
it  to  be  cholera,  and  I  was  not  going  to  trouble  my  head  much 
about  a  danger  as  yet  remote  :  there  was  time  enough  for  that 
afterward. 

I  could  not  help  noticing  the  great  many  small  houses  which  had 
been  built,  and  improvements  which  had  been  made  along  the  road 
to  Stockton,  since  I  had  passed  there  last ;  nearly  every  mile  a  tent 
or  log-cabin  was  standing,  or  at  least  commenced — each,  of  course, 
with  a  bar,  and  a  gin,  brandy,  and  whisky  store.  Even  some 
large  boarding-houses  had  been  erected,  for  instance,  on  the  Cal- 
averes  ;  and  at  another  halting-place,  the  Double  Springs,  where 
I  had  seen  before  only  a  large  tent,  I  found  a  little  town  grown 
up  between  the  roots  of  the  large  oaks,  like  mushrooms  in  a 
single  night ;  and  the  place  had  been  created  the  seat  of  a  dis- 
trict-court. 

Monday,  the  4th  of  November,  we  reached  Stockton  ;  and  I 
should  not  have  known  the  place  again,  but  for  its  pleasant  sit- 
uation among  the  bulrushes  or  "toolaws,"  as  they  call  them 
here,  so  greatly  had  it  spread  in  every  direction,  and  such  large 
buildings  had  risen  up  from  out  the  low  and  simple  tents  of  the 
former  inhabitants.  Even  a  theatre  had  been  erected,  a  tall 
building,  of  four  stories,  only  a  few  hundred  yards  from  the  place 
where  we  had  stuck  with  our  carts  and  oxen  in  the  swamp,  when 
I  passed  Stockton  for  the  first  time.  A  circus  was  also  open,  the 
gambling  hells  had  been  enlarged,  and  every  thing  showed  Stock- 
ton was  a  rapidly-rising  and  flourishing  town. 

This  was  the  town  of  Judge  Reynolds,  or,  at  least,  had  been, 
for  they  had  driven  him  off  a  few  weeks  before ;  but  the  place 
was  full  of  anecdotes  about  him,  and  such  another  justice  of  the 
peace  has  probably  never  existed  in  the  whole  world.  He  did 
every  thing  he  pleased,  and  he  was  pleased  to  do  every  thing  by 
which  he  could  extort  money  ;  there  was  also  no  appeal  from 


MUSQUITO  GULCH  AND  MAGUALOME.  241 

him  to  the  supreme  court,  except  in  matters  of  life  and  death,  and 
for  a  long  while  he  enjoyed  an  uninterrupted  sway,  taking  in 
ounces  as  fast  as  he  could  condemn  people  to  pay  fines,  and  con- 
demning every  body  who  came  within  his  reach.  To  give  the 
reader  an  idea  of  him  and  his  time,  I  will  only  relate  one  anec- 
dote out  of  thousands. 

At  the  Stockton  Restaurant,  a  boarding-house  kept  by  a  Ger- 
man and  an  Alsatian,  the  kitchen-stuff  had  been  thrown  out  once 
or  twice  upon  the  square  behind  their  house  ;  some  constable  had 
seen  it,  and  the  firm  was  sued  for  causing  a  public  nuisance,  by 
the  States'  attorney.  So  far  every  thing  was  right.  Mr.  Weber, 
the  one  partner  of  the  firm,  who  attended  coiirt,  was  condemned 
to  pay  a  fine  of  twenty-five  dollars  to  the  judge  and  twenty-five 
dollars  to  the  States'  attorney,  these  two  usually  dividing  what 
they  could  scrape  together.  Mr.  Weber  knew  very  well  it  was 
no  use  saying  a  word  against  it,  and  was  perfectly  satisfied  at 
having  appeared  before  Judge  Reynolds  and  escaping  with  only 
three  ounces  to  pay.  But  after  he  had  paid  every  thing,  he  re- 
ceived another  bill  from  the  States'  attorney  next  day,  for  an- 
other twenty-five  dollars,  due  to  this  gentleman  from  his  partner, 
as  the  whole  firm  had  been  condemned  to  pay  the  fine,  and  there 
were  two  partners  in  it. 

Ridiculous  as  this  would  have  been  in  any  other  country,  Weber 
knew  the  state  of  the  law  in  Stockton  only  too  well  not  to  fear 
the  worst,  and  went  to  see  his  own  attorney  about  it.  He  laughed 
when  he  told  him  of  the  new  demand,  but  notwithstanding 
warned  him  he  had  better  pay  it  than  go  to  law  about  it,  when 
he  would  have  to  lay  out  five  or  six  times  the  sum  in  costs,  and 
never  would  get  off  a  fine  wrhich  Judge  Reynolds  or  his  States' 
attorney  had  once  claimed  as  their  own.  The  only  thing  he 
could  do,  though  it  would  do  him  no  good,  was  to  ask  Judge  Rey- 
nolds, after  the  next  day's  court  was  over,  about  the  case,  and 
whether  he  was  bound  to  pay  such  a  demand.  Mr.  Weber  did 
so,  and  stepping  up  to  the  learned  judge  and  explaining  the  case 
to  him  in  a  few  words,  asked  his  opinion.  The  judge  gave  it 
decidedly  in  favor  of  the  States'  attorney. 

"  But  suppose,"  Mr.  Weber  said,  getting  rather  warm,  "  one 
member  of  a  large  joint-stock  company,  say  of  a  thousand  men, 
had  been  convicted  of  such  a  public  nuisance,  and  condemned  by 
your  Honor  to  pay  such  a  fine,  would,  in  this  case,  every  single 

L 


242       .  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

one  of  the  thousand  be  obliged  to  pay  these  twenty-five  dollars  to 
the  State's  attorney  also?" 

" Without  the  least  doubt,  Sir!"  the  learned  judge  replied, 
pursing  his  brows ;  and  "Weber,  of  course,  left  the  house,  and 
paid  his  twenty-five  dollars  in  the  greatest  haste. 

In  California  law  and  justice  were  altogether  two  very  different 
things  at  that  time ;  for  all  the  officers  of  justice,  attorneys,  and 
judges,  or  whatever  their  titles  may  have  been,  had  only  come 
over  here,  like  the  rest,  to  make  money ;  the  quickest  way  they 
could  do  so,  being  of  course  the  best. 

As  to  the  cholera,  of  which  we  had  heard  so  much  on  the  road, 
we  could  not  see  a  sign  of  it  in  Stockton  ;  some  cases  had,  in  fact, 
appeared,  but  only  among  the  Mexicans,  and  nobody  spoke  or 
thought  of  any  danger.  At  San  Francisco,  too,  it  was  said  that 
it  had  considerably  abated,  though  it  had  been  there  for  a  couple 
of  weeks. 

I  started  next  morning  from  Stockton,  in  one  of  the  small  bay 
steamers  to  San  Francisco ;  in  this  case  also  matters  had  im- 
proved. The  steamers  were  better  and  larger,  and  in  spite  of 
that,  cheaper  :  where  I  had  paid  in  the  spring  of  this  same  year 
thirty  dollars  for  the  passage  from  Stockton  to  San  Francisco,  with 
no  sleeping-place,  I  now  paid  fifteen  dollars,  and  had  a  very  good 
berth  to  turn  into. 

Wednesday,  the  6th  of  November,  we  landed  on  a  new  wharf 
at  San  Francisco,  the  last  time  I  should  enter  this  "  Fairy  Q,ueen 
of  the  West ;"  for,  as  in  the  fairy  tales  of  old,  the  city  had  sprung 
up  out  of  the  barren  hills,  growing  up  in  a  single  night,  and  al- 
tering its  features  every  week  so  entirely,  that  even  its  outlines 
and  buildings  assumed  a  different  character. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

SAN   FRANCISCO    IN    THE    AUTUMN    OF    1850. 

THE  boat  had  hardly  stopped,  when  several  parties  offered 
their  services  to  carry  baggage  into  the  town.  I  had  brought 
down  with  me  a  good  many  curiosities,  and  wanted  somebody  to 
help  me,  but  was  doubtful  what  price  might  be  asked,  for  I  thought 
of  olden  times.  I  first  inquired  of  a  young  negro  what  he  would 
take  to  help  me  in  carrying  a  part  of  my  things  up  into  town, 
and  his  answer  surprised  me  not  a  little,  "  Quarter-dollar,  Sir." 
"What  a  change  !  But  I  found  more  cause  for  astonishment  a  few 
minutes  afterward,  for  on  entering  the  town  I  had  left  not  quite 
half  a  year  before  I  really  did  not  know  where  I  was,  did  not 
recognize  a  single  street,  and  was  perfectly  at  a  loss  what  to  think 
of  such  an  entire  change.  Where  I  left  a  crowded  mass  of  low 
wooden  huts  and  tents,  I  found  a  city,  and  in  great  part  built  of 
brick  houses,  with  pretty  stores  ;  and  the  streets — formerly  covered 
with  rnud  and  water — floored  throughout  with  thick  and  dry 
planks.  There  was  not  a  spot  of  ground  to  be  seen,  the  whole 
road  was  one  mass  of  wood ;  and  the  danger  of  fire  was  said  to 
be  lessened  by  this,  instead  of  being  aggravated,  as  the  engines, 
which  not  unfrequently  stuck  in  the  mud  formerly,  before  they 
could  reach  the  place  of  the  fire,  were  now  able  to  run  nearly  with 
railroad  speed  to  the  spot  where  they  were  wanted. 

"With  a  greater  feeling  of  security,  the  merchants  also  bestowed 
greater  care  upon  their  stores,  giving  them  a  more  pleasant  ap- 
pearance, and  ornamenting  them ;  and  the  town  itself  had  lost 
in  a  great  -measure  that  wild  and  rambling  appearance  which 
the  tents  had  mainly  given  it. 

Still  San  Francisco  as  yet  displays  too  great  a  mixture  of  nations 
to  allow  any  kind  of  uniform  exterior,  but  while  the  American 
character  is  revealed  more  strong  with  every  month,  the  Spanish 
element  is  disappearing  fast ;  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  it  v/ill 
be  in  a  year  or  two — for  ages  are  not  required  for  such  a  change 


244  JOURNEY   ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

in  this  part  of  the  world — a  decidedly  American  city,  like  New 
York,  or  rather  New  Orleans. 

A  great  many  Frenchmen  live  in  the  town,  and  are  the  prin- 
cipal proprietors  of  the  boarding-houses,  hotels,  and  cafes.  Span- 
ish stores  are  very  rarely  found,  though  the  "  compra  oro  aqui," 
or  "gold  dust  bought,"  in  the  windows,  reminds  you  of  former 
times. 

There  are  also  great  quantities  of  Chinese,  but  you  see  very 
little  of  them ;  they  roll  up  their  tails,  and  conceal  them  fre- 
quently under  European  caps,  and  hide  themselves  in  their  own 
houses ;  and  only  the  Chinese  flags  here  and  there  denoting  eat- 
ing-houses kept  by  some  of  this  industrious  and  never  idle  race, 
tell  you  the  exact  spot  where  you  may  find  a  nest  of  them.  A 
great  many  have  emigrated,  principally  during  the  last  year ;  and 
since  I  left  California  and  San  Francisco,  a  legislative  measure 
has  been  passed  in  a  rather  peculiar  way,  and  contrary  to  the 
constitution,  as  well  as  for  a  rather  peculiar  reason,  imposing  a 
poll-tax,  only  affecting  Chinamen.  The  reason,  most  singularly, 
lay  in  the  temperate  and  simple  habits  of  the  Chinese ;  they 
came  to  California,  as  the  California  legislature  considered,  earned 
a  great  deal  of  money  by  their  industry,  and  spent  nothing,  and 
the  only  way  of  getting  any  thing  out  of  them,  was  by  laying 
them  under  a  poll-tax.  In  their  favor  it  was  urged  that  if  they 
drank  no  liquors,  they  all  most  certainly  bought  a  pair  of  boots 
as  soon  as  they  trod  Californian  ground  and  saw  their  country- 
men strutting  about  in  such  articles  of  dress ;  but  this  argument 
was  not  thought  sufficient,  and  the  poll-tax  came  into  force. 

There  were  several  newspapers  at  this  time,  and  numbers  of 
ready-made  editors  were  awaiting  with  ardent  impatience  the 
arrival  of  some  new  presses  in  order  to  start  fresh  pampers.  The 
American  gazettes  at  that  time  were  the  "  Alta  California"  and 
the  "  Pacific  News,"  with  a  new  undertaking,  the  "  Commercial 
Bulletin."  Besides  these,  the  French  also  brought  out  a  paper, 
but  for  want  of  a  printing  press  it  was  lithographed.  I  myself 
had  some  intention  of  starting  a  German  paper,  but  the  expenses 
were  so  enormous — there  being  only  one  German  printer  in  the 
town,  and  he  just  ready  to  start  for  the  mines — and  the  interest 
my  countrymen  showed  for  such  an  undertaking  so  small,  that  I 
had  to  give  it  up  as  a  bad  job. 

What  seemed  to  prosper  best  in  the  growing  town,  proved  to 


SAN  FRANCISCO  IN  THE  AUTUMN  OF  1850.  245 

be  the  gambling-houses  and  tables.  The  El  Dorado,  which  I 
had  left  a  low  canvas  tent,  I  found  on  my  return  a  splendid 
three-storied  brick  building.  The  lower  side  of  the  plaza,  with 
the  Parker-house  and  several  others,  was  in  fact  entirely  taken  up 
by  these  gambling  hells,  each  furnished  more  splendidly  than  the 
others,  the  most  magnificent,  however,  being  the  El  Dorado,  with 
its  enormous  gambling  saloon,  containing  an  immense  quantity 
of  different  tables  for  nearly  as  many  different  games,  though 
monte,  a  Spanish  invention,  and  played  with  Spanish  cards,  pos- 
sessed the  preference  :  but  besides  this,  there  were  faro,  vingtun 
roulette,  dice,  lansquenet,  and  a  variety  of  other  modes  to  lose 
money.  Below  this  saloon — or,  rather,  saloons,  for  they  were 
divided  by  several  partitions — the  cellar  rooms  were  furnished 
with  four  elegant  bowling-alleys,  parallel  to  one  another,  and 
also  only  used  by  hazard  players ;  and  in  the  second  story  were 
billiard-rooms,  with  a  shooting  gallery  behind  them.  The  second 
story  of  one  of  these  buildings  also  contained  a  theatre,  called  the 
Jenny  Lind,  where  you  got  enough  for  your  money,  for  while  the 
orchestra  played  one  overture,  you  could  plainly  hear  another 
from  the  saloons  below. 

In  all  these  fine  saloons  you  found  two  different  counters  or 
bars,  one  for  the  sale  of  spirituous  liquors  alone,  with  a  man  be- 
hind ;  the  other  for  tea,  coffee,  chocolate,  and  similar  beverages, 
with  preserves  and  pastry,  and  at  this  table  a  young  lady  waits 
in  a  black  silk  dress,  looking  smilingly  upon  you  when  you  ask 
for  something,  and  stared  at  by  the  "  b'hoys,"  when  they  come 
down  from  the  mines. 

These  boys,  however,  need  some  description,  for  a  perfect  swarm 
of  them  forms  an  entirely  new  and  wild  genus,  of  which  the  En- 
glish reader  has  no  idea. 

There  are  thousands  of  Americans,  taken  in  a  perfectly  green 
state  out  of  the  woods,  who  have  seen  nothing  in  their  lives  but 
their  ranges  and  log-cabins,  or  perhaps  the  nearest  country-seat, 
and  who  started  across  the  plains  and  Rocky  Mountains,  with 
their  teams,  from  Missouri  or  Arkansas,  through  a  yet  wilder 
country  than  even  their  home  was.  Reaching  California  in  the 
fall  of  the  year,  where  they  stopped  in  some  rough  mountain 
gulch,  working  away  some  ten  or  twelve  months  in  the  mines, 
they  suddenly  enter  San  Francisco,  and  are  all  struck  of  a  heap, 
to  use  their  own  phrase.  Add  to  this,  some  of  the  raw  Yankees 


246  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

you  can  even  see  in  New  York,  with  a  large  cake  of  gingerbread 
under  their  arms,  and  another  smaller  piece  between  their  teeth, 
who  walk  leisurely  through  the  streets,  spelling  the  different  sign- 
boards, form  perfect  crowds  of  spectators  in  San  Francisco,  dam- 
ming the  passages  in  the  streets  by  day,  and  those  between  the 
gambling-tables  at  night.  They  post  themselves,  without  think- 
ing of  spending  a  cent  upon  such  fine  stylish  fixings,  before  the 
chocolate  stands,  and  rush  out  of  one  house  into  another,  some- 
times with  wild  screams  and  yells,  as  soon  as  they  reach  open 
air  again,  which  reminds  you  of  the  war-whoop  of  the  Creeks  or 
Seminoles,  and  makes  the  passing  Mexican  stop  and  listen  in  as- 
tonishment to  the  strange  unearthly  sounds. 

But  the  gambling-tables  are  not  situated  in  this  part  of  the 
town  alone,  smaller  ones  are  scattered  through  nearly  every  street ; 
and  you  may  see  at  them,  if  you  take  an  interest  in  such  things, 
the  most  singular  and  peculiar  groups  imaginable.  I  once  enter- 
ed a  small  building  in  the  lower  part  of  Montgomery-street,  near 
Clark's  Point,  where  a  beautiful  little  Frenchwoman  was  sitting 
behind  a  hazard  table,  and  a  very  decent  pile  of  silver  and  gold, 
gambling  furiously,  and  raking  in  silver  dollars  and  gold  ounces 
in  a  most  bewitching  way  with  her  broken  English  and  Spanish. 
A  tall,  raw-boned  Yankee  had  been  really  caught  by  this  little 
siren  in  black  silk,  and  was  throwing  the  most  languishing  and 
desperate  looks  at  her  while  losing  his  money,  without  her  taking 
the  least  notice  of  him,  except  by  pulling  his  stake  toward  her, 
which  he  invariably  lost,  as  long  as  I  was  standing  there  and 
watching  the  game.  At  last,  having  sacrificed,  as  it  seemed,  his 
last  ounce,  he  pulled  out  his  watch  and  put  it  down  ;  it  followed 
the  rest.  Another  watch — "  Lost  Sir,"  the  little  Frenchwoman 
would  say,  and  six  inches  difference  in  the  position  of  the  stake 
on  the  table  brought  it  into  her  possession.  Another  watch — 
only  one  spot  wanting  and  he  would  have  won  this  time,  but  no, 
it  was  not  to  be.  Another  watch — the  man  must  have  had  all 
his  pockets  full  of  them,  for  wherever  he  put  his  hand,  out  one 
came ;  the  young  Frenchwoman  smiled,  threw,  and  this  watch 
was  also  hers.  He  pulled  a  ring  off  his  finger. 

"  Combien  ?"  the  lady  said. 

"  Tres  ounces,"  the  Yankee  answered  in  despair. 

"  Oh,  no,  no,  no,"  the  gamestress  laughed;  "una  watch,  pas 
plus." 


SAN  FRANCISCO  IN  THE  AUTUMN  OF  1850.  247 

This  time  the  Yankee  won,  and  she  pushed  one  of  the  watches, 
hap-hazard,  toward  him,  but  on  the  next  throw  he  lost  it  again, 
and  the  ring  as  well ;  but  I  had  no  time  to  wait  and  see  if  those 
inexhaustible  pockets  produced  any  more  jewelry.  That  man 
must  have  been  most  certainly  a  traveling  watchmaker. 

San  Francisco  already  began  to  have  many  public  amuse- 
ments ;  it  counted  two  theatres,  one  circus,  an  exhibition  of  liv- 
ing statuary,  now  and  then  the  black  serenaders,  some  boxing 
entertainments  on  fine  sunny  mornings,  and  a  number  of  cafes- 
chantants,  which  were  invented  and  kept  by  Frenchmen,  and 
deserve  at  least  a  short  description,  for  what  I  saw  at  the  real 
theatres  was  so  indifferent  that  it  would  not  be  worth  while 
wasting  a  word  about  them  ;  I  only  regret  the  two  dollars  I  spent 
one  night  in  visiting  the  Jenny  Lind  theatre,  and  seeing  the 
"  Merchant  of  Venice"  most  miserably  performed. 

These  cafes-chantants  are  nearly  always  common  bar-rooms, 
rather  large  of  course,  to  hold  more  people,  and  in  the  back  part, 
furnished  with  a  kind  of  little  theatre,  with  a  real  curtain  and 
two  coulisses,  or  side  scenes,  the  whole  perhaps  four  or  five  feet 
higher  than  the  floor  of  the  saloons.  Upon  this  stage  stands  a 
piano-forte,  with  several  chairs  ;  and  each  evening  some  unhappy 
individual,  particularly  engaged  for  the  purpose,  takes  his  place 
before  it,  and  drums  the  instrument  for  about  five  or  six  hours 
at  a  stretch,  for  he  is  bound  by  contract  to  outdo  even  the  uproar 
of  a  well-filled  tap-room,  whose  customers  do  not  care  a  bit  about 
the  player  or  his  instrument. 

In  the  cafe-chantant  I  visited  several  times,  and  in  which  I 
also  once  drank  a  glass  of  abominable  punch,  on  each  occasion  a 
gentleman  in  a  black  dress-coat,  and  white  kid  gloves,  appeared 
on  the  stage,  and  sang,  with  a  very  strong  and  full  voice,  a 
French  song,  accompanied  by  the  man  on  the  piano  ;  I  think  so, 
at  least,  for  he  struck  the  keys  powerfully,  and  worked  his  should- 
er-blades at  the  same  time  most  freely,  though  I  could  hear  no- 
thing. After  him,  a  very  lean  young  lady  appeared,  and  she  sang, 
I  fancy,  a  comic  song,  for  she  had  a  roll  of  music  in  her  hand, 
and  opened  her  mouth  very  wide,  at  the  same  time  shutting  her 
eyes,  and  then  with  a  multitude  of  smiles,  looked  up  at  the  ceiling. 
Besides  these  two,  I  also  saw  in  this  cafe-chantant  a  young  man 
of  about  nineteen  or  twenty  years  of  age,  also  in  a  black  dress- 
coat,  very  white  kid  gloves,  an  extremely  tight  cravat,  danger- 


248  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

ously  long  and  sharp-pointed  shirt  collar,  white  waistcoat,  and 
very  fair  hair.  I  suspected  him  at  first  of  being  a  kind  of  comic 
singer,  for  he  grinned  all  the  time  ;  but  I  found  out  afterward  he 
served  more  for  ornament  than  use,  singing  with  his  weak  voice 
the  chorus  to  the  Marseillaise  Hymn,  conversing  with  the  lean 
lady  in  the  pauses,  and  upsetting  the  chairs  when  he  had  to  leave 
the  stage.  In  the  cafe  itself,  and  behind  the  bar,  some  French 
girls  were  seated,  as  a  kind  of  bait,  the  picture  of  the  oldest  one 
hanging  above  the  brandy-bottles,  with  a  tremendous  rose  in  her 
hand  ;  and  right  under  it,  the  original  tried  to  keep  her  eyes 
open  till  eleven  or  twelve  o'clock  at  night,  and  smile  with  heavy 
eyelids,  through  the  dreadful  tobacco-smoke,  at  some  long  lank 
Down-easter,  to  entice  the  unhappy  victim  to  order  the  tenth 
glass  of  sour  punch.  The  Yankees  call  these  cafes  "  shantangs," 
and  say  the  word  is  Chinese. 

On  walking  through  the  town  next  morning,  I  was  astonished 
at  the  improvements  going  on  every  where.  Hundreds  of  houses 
were  being  built  at  the  same  time,  and  even  steamers  were 
manufactured  by  putting  old  engines  into  little  sailing  crafts,  and 
were  taking  in  freight  up  to  the  gunwale.  I  once  saw  them  cut 
up  a  whale-boat,  put  a  piece  in  the  middle  to  lengthen  it,  and 
make  a  steamer  out  of  it  in  no  time. 

They  had  lately  commenced  bursting  boilers,  and  the  poor 
devils  who  were  on  board  of  the  boats,  and  finally  escaped  with 
their  lives,  will  have  plenty  of  cause  to  remember  them.  I  say 
finally,  for  a  perfect  chain  of  fatal  accidents  of  a  really  romantic 
character,  happened  to  these  marked  victims. 

Only  the  day  before,  a  small  steamer  had  left  for  Stockton  with 
passengers,  but  running  some  where  in  the  bay  against  another 
steamboat,  she  sunk,  a  total  loss,  though  nearly  all  the  crew  and 
passengers  were  saved.  The  surviving  boat  took  the  people — 
who  all  sought  refuge  on  its  deck,  of  course — back  with  her  to 
San  Francisco,  and  most  of  them  took  passage  upon  the  first  boat 
which  started  up  the  river,  to  their  place  of  destination.  This 
was  the  unhappy  "  Sagamore,"  whose  boiler  burst  on  getting 
only  a  very  short  distance  from  the  wharf,  and  killed  and  destroy- 
ed the  greater  part  of  her  crew  and  passengers.  Very  few  es- 
caped unwounded  ;  and  some  of  those  saved,  being  badly  hurt, 
and  many  senseless,  were  carried  up  to  the  City  Hospital.  But 
the  unlucky  men  were  not  yet  safe,  though  upon  dry  ground,  for, 


SAN  FRANCISCO  IN  THE  AUTUMN  OF  1850.  249 

after  escaping  from  the  wreck  of  their  boat  the  previous  day,  and 
the  explosion  on  that  day,  that  very  night  a  fire  broke  out  in  the 
hospital  itself,  which  was  burnt  to  the  ground.  None  were  hurt 
by  this  accident,  it  is  true ;  but  some,  carried  into  the  streets, 
died  notwithstanding,  through  the  excitement  of  the  moment, 
and  the  rest  had  to  run  the  chances  of  the  cholera,  which  raged 
most  severely  at  the  time.  Those  few  chosen  ones,  who  went 
through  that  whole  chain  of  accidents,  and  escaped  with  their 
lives,  will  remember  California,  I  think. 

The  number  of  steamers  had  increased  in  a  most  extraordinary 
manner,  though  only  progressively  with  every  thing  else,  during 
the  last  half-year.  In  the  previous  autumn,  only  two  or  three 
small  steamers  run  upon  the  bay  ;  now  twenty-eight — and  among 
these  some  pretty  large  ones — ply  between  San  Francisco,  Pue- 
bla  San  Jose,  Stockton,  and  Sacramento,  without  counting  those 
which  are  reserved  only  for  the  San  Joaquin,  Sacramento,  Feather 
and  Juba  Rivers,  while  the  most  splendid  steamers  are  kept  as 
packets  between  the  "  Q,ueen  of  the  West"  and  Panama.  Alto- 
gether, there  is  not  a  more  enterprising  nation  on  the  face  of  the 
earth  than  the  Americans  are ;  and  a  striking  proof  of  this, 
unparalleled  in  history,  is  furnished  by  San  Francisco.  Many 
laughed  when  Americans  were  paying  large  sums,  even  in  1849, 
for  places  which  lay  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile  out  in  the 
bay,  not  even  becoming  dry  in  low  tide,  while  large  vessels  were 
discharging  their  freight  out  there  into  boats;  arid  now,  even 
hundreds  of  yards  beyond  these  places,  large  buildings  stand,  and 
streets  are  commenced  upon  bridges  and  posts.  The  Americans, 
of  course,  do  not  build  so  solidly  as  we  are  accustomed  to  do.  If 
a  house  is  only  run  up,  no  matter  whether  the  walls  are  thick  or 
thin,  or  if  there  is  a  danger  of  its  falling  in  again  ;  it  has  been  a 
speculation,  and  with  the  next  one  they  intend  to  be  a  leetle 
more  careful,  though  they  are  not.  The  plank-roads  were  also 
laid  very  lightly,  but  they  were  laid ;  and  if  they  had  to  mend 
and  repair  here  and  there  again,  the  cost  was  in  no  comparison 
with  the  profit. 

This  is  the  fault  of  all  the  American  works,  if  it  can  be  called 
a  fault,  for  they  make  up  in  number  for  any  neglect  in  exactitude 
or  care  :  and  where  Germans  and  even  other  nations  would  study 
for  years,  and  calculate  and  consider  if  the  thing  is  possible,  and 
if  possible  also  lucrative,  the  American  commences  at  it  at  once 

L* 


250  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

with  a  dozen  steam-engines  and  tries  the  whole  first  in  practice. 
Very  frequently  it  really  succeeds  ;  and  if  not,  it  has  been  in  that 
case  most  certainly  a  practical  experiment,  if  nothing  else,  and 
the  next  trial  must  succeed,  and  will  repay  the  costs  of  the  first 
failure. 

Arid  now,  what  kind  of  a  country  is  California  ?  will  it  real- 
ize all  those  high  expectations  we  have  of  it  ?  will  it  pay  ? 

"  Q,uien  sabe?"  the  Californian  himself  says  with  his  ever- 
ready  answer  ;  but  I  will  tell  you  my  opinion  about  it,  dear  read- 
er, and  you  may  then  judge  for  yourself. 

The  mines  of  California  will  never  be  exhausted  during  our 
lives  or  those  of  our  children ;  even  all  those  places  which  are 
thought  worked  up  at  present,  will  be  washed  over  again  when 
a  more  quiet  process  has  succeeded  to  the  present  washing  with 
common  cradles  and  pans,  and  railways  have  been  laid  to  the 
most  prominent  mining  places  to  secure  them,  together  with  reg- 
ular communication,  a  low  price  for  provisions  and  other  necessa- 
ries. The  time,  however,  when  individuals  could  make  a  fortune 
in  the  mines  in  one  or  two  weeks,  is  past ;  they  may  do  it  now 
by  speculations,  but  can  do  the  same  every  where  else  ;  and  they 
will  never  have  another  chance — with  exceptions,  of  course — of 
finding  very  rich  spots,  and  sticking  to  them  by  themselves  till 
they  have  exhausted  them.  There  are  too  many  now  pressing 
around  them.  But  that  is  rather  an  advantage  than  a  disadvant- 
age, for  a  more  regular  way  of  working  the  different  places  will 
come  into  use  ;  people  will  commence  from  the  outset  with  a 
steadier  will :  and  if  they  stick  to  work,  perseveringly  and 
industriously — though  hard  work  it  be — they  will  earn  good 
wages. 

California  will  always — that  is,  for  a  length  of  time  to  come 
— be  a  land  in  which  to  make  money — or  lose  it ;  and  any  one 
living  there  must  resign  nearly  all  those  social  ties,  which  he  has 
been  accustomed  to  in  the  old  country.  "  Oh,  that  is  nothing," 
many  say  ;  "  if  I  am  out  of  reach  of  them,  I  can  easily  give  them 
up."  This  would  be  true,  if  you  ever  could  get  out  of  reach 
of  them,  but  your  memory  recurs  to  all  you  have  left,  and 
you  can  never  silence  that.  And  take  away,  in  fact,  all  those 
pure  enjoyments  from  man,  which  he  found  in  former  times  in  his 
family  circle,  among  his  friends,  in  his  home,  and  throw  him  into 


SAN  FRANCISCO  IN  THE  AUTUMN  OF  1850.  251 

a  sphere  where  money — money  is  the  only  sound,  what  is  left 
him  at  last  but  to  become  a  mere  working  machine  with  only  the 
one  thought  of  gain,  and  perfectly  satisfied  at  having  been  en- 
dowed by  his  Creator  with  a  heart  for  the  sole  purpose  of  keep- 
ing the  blood  in  due  circulation  during  business  hours. 

Social  life,  at  the  same  time,  never  can  be  formed  artificially 
— it  must  grow  up  from  itself,  and  principally  by  and  through 
the  presence  of  the  gentler  sex.  Our  earthly  happiness  depends 
upon  the  society  of  woman  ;  and  if  it  were  only  to  see  her  work 
and  reign  at  her  own  hearth  and  home,  the  mere  consciousness  of 
the  presence  of  a  female  heart  is  a  blessing.  And  what  compen- 
sation has  the  Californian  usually  for  this  ?  Other  countries 
send  him  their  frail  ones,  who  ruin  those  who  escape  the  gam- 
bling hells. 

There  are  some  persons  living  here,  who  have  sent  home  for 
their  families,  or  themselves  gone  back  to  the  States  to  bring 
them  out ;  but  in  comparison  to  the  rest,  these  are  exceptions — 
and  why  ?  because  among  thousands  who  are  living  here  now, 
and  pretending  to  be  very  much  pleased  with  the  country  itself,  not 
fifty  intend — let  them  say  publicly  what  they  please — to  make 
California  their  real  home  ;  they  all  only  came  here  to  make 
money,  and  return  with  it  as  fast  as  they  can  to  the  States,  or 
other  countries.  In  later  times  a  new  generation,  born  here  and 
having  no  other  reminiscences,  will  remain  and  perhaps  popu- 
late the  country  in  a  steady  and  consequently  natural  way. 

Agriculture  and  gardening  will  then  become  the  main  support 
of  the  population  ;  and  though  gold  may  be  still  found  in  abun- 
dance, the  mad  excitement  will  be  over,  and  California  become 
a  more  settled  and  comfortable  State  than  it  is  now  ;  but  I  hard- 
ly think  any  gold  country  ever  can  acquire  that  charm  which 
is  interwoven  with  the  quiet,  contented,  and  frugal  life  of  every 
other  state  or  land,  and  I  for  my  part  should  never  like  to  choose 
it  for  a  continued  and  actual  residence. 

But  it  is  a  most  extraordinary  country  for  the  merchant,  a 
hazardous  game,  like  monte  and  roulette,  but  equally  exciting. 
Time,  with  years  compressed  into  weeks  and  days,  when  com- 
pared with  other  parts  of  the  world,  has  dwindled  down  to  a  no- 
thing, and  'the  period  has  returned  when  man  can  reach  an  age 
of  nine  hundred  and  a  thousand  years — for  they  live  through 
them  in  California 


254  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

days.  Many  did  so,  the  others  were  taken  up  and  imprisoned 
till  we  had  collected  enough  to  charter  a  ship  and  send  them  off. 

"  During  our  patrols  and  house-searching  we  discovered  whole 
dens  of  thieves,  and  deposits  of  stolen  goods — one,  for  instance, 
upon  the  island  of  Los  Angelos,  in  the  bay.  In  a  very  short 
time  we  had  a  large  number  of  prisoners,  whom  we  kept  in  our 
assembly-house,  having  provided  small  cells,  holding  four  or  £ve. 
Two  companies  were  on  duty,  one  by  day  and  one  by  night. 
Each  member  had  to  keep  his  own  watch,  and  appear  arrned  at 
the  place  of  meeting.  Those  who  came  without  pistols  or  with 
unloaded  ones,  had  to  pay  five  dollars  fine ;  and  those  who  had 
no  arms  and  were  not  able  to  buy  them,  received  them  from  the 
sergeant-at-arms. 

"  An  executive  committee  conducted  the  trials  of  the  prisoners, 
and  the  general  committee,  after  hearing  the  result,  pronounced 
the  verdict. 

"  The  first  person  was  a  certain  Jenkins — you  know  the  par- 
ticulars, I  expect,  but  it  is  necessary  to  acquaint  you  how  far 
we  had  the  sympathy  of  the  whole  population  with  us.  This 
showed  itself  in  the  most  different  ways  ;  all  the  draymen  in 
towrn,  for  instance,  came,  as  they  heard  by  the  fire  bell  being 
struck  twice  that  we  had  passed  judgment  of  death,  in  all  haste 
to  the  committee-house,  where  they  formed  perfect  bulwarks 
with  their  carts  and  wagons — the  authorities  never  could  have 
thought  of  taking  the  prisoner  away  by  force  in  such  a  case.  At 
the  same  time,  we  had  sent  deputations  to  all  the  other  towns  of 
Alta  California,  to  organize  branch  committees  there,  principally 
useful  in  watching  all  those  felons  who  had  fled  from  San  Fran- 
cisco to  seek  shelter  farther  up  the  interior. 

•"  In  consequence  of  our  unwearied  exertions,  perfect  peace  and 
security  exist  now  in  San  Francisco,  and,  in  fact,  through  the 
whole  country.  The  worst  justices  even  have  voluntarily  resigned 
office  through  fear  of  the  Committee,  and  their  places  are  now 
occupied  by  better  ones.  We  all  knew,  at  the  same  time,  that 
our  actions  were  utterly  illegal,  even  criminal ;  still  it  became  a 
necessity,  sanctioned  by  seven-eighths  of  the  population  of  Cali- 
fornia." 

Thus  far  the  letter,  and  knowing  the  state  of  the  country  my- 
self, I  am  perfectly  convinced  this  Vigilance  Committee  was  of  the 
most  urgent  necessity  for  the  whole  community.  This  incessant 


SAN  FRANCISCO  IN  THE  AUTUMN  OF  1850.  265 

fear  of  fire  must  have  been  felt  with  the  full  conviction,  at  the 
same  time,  that  a  perfect  band  of  felons  was  watching  for  such  an 
accident,  and  probably  caused  it  themselves,  for  pillage  and  plun- 
der, in  order  to  comprehend  how  a  whole  population  could  rise 
and  say  :  "  Thus  far  and  no  farther."  Only  such  circumstances, 
too,  can  excuse  such  remedies,  but  then  no  excuse  is  necessary, 
for  it  honors  the  citizen  to  risk  his  own  life  and  property  that  he 
may  free  town  and  state  from  such  a  curse,  or,  at  least,  check  the 
continuance  of  such  crimes. 

Uncle  Sam  has  looked  at  these  proceedings,  I  am  sure,  rather 
doubtfully,  and  his  officers  and  functionaries  have  sent  him  dread- 
ful -accounts  of  the  deeds  committed  :  but  this  being  rather  a 
ticklish  case,  government  found  itself  in  the  awkward  predica- 
ment of  being  opposed  to  a  whole  united  nation — the  nation 
being,  at  such  a  time,  always  in  the  right. 

But  enough  of  California.  Perfectly  satisfied  with  being  able 
at  last  to  leave  the  country  again,  and  continue  my  journey,  and 
having  spent  far  too  long  a  time  upon  this  station  already,  my 
first  step,  as  soon  as  I  reached  town,  was  to  look  for  my  luggage 
which  I  had  left  at  the  Mission,  but  soon  found  that  somebody 
else  had  taken  on  himself  the  trouble  of  attending  to  all  those  small 
matters.  All  that  I  had  called  my  own,  with  the  exception  of 
the  empty  trunk,  in  which  I  found  an  old  coat,  a  pair  of  sus- 
penders, and  one  pair  of  socks,  accidentally  left  under  the  paper, 
was  gone.  I  had  to  buy  perfectly  new  clothing  from  head  to  foot, 
having  come  down  from  the  mines  in  my  original  mining  dress — 
and  the  reader  ought  to  have  seen  me  in  such  a  state.  But  I  did 
not  care  much  about  that  just  now,  only  I  was  sorry  at  losing  a 
note-book  of  my  journey  through  the  Pampas,  which  had  been 
taken  away  with  a  good  many  books  I  could  not  replace.  80  I 
bought  an  entirely  new  outfit,  refilled  my  trunk,  and  soon  found 
a  ship — an  American  barque — the  "  Magnolia,"  in  which  I  took 
passage  for  Honolulu,  as  it  was  advertised  for  Manilla,  via  Sand- 
wich Islands.  So  taking  my  trunk  on  board,  and  finishing  my 
letters,  I  was  just  going  to  leave  the  Californian  shores,  when  I 
heard  at  the  agent's  office  that  the  "  Magnolia"  was  not  going  to 
touch  at  the  Hawaiian  group,  though  advertised  for  those  islands 
during  several  weeks,  and  the  captain  would  send  my  trunk 
ashore  again. 

This  was  a  pleasant  surprise — and  would  he  really  do  so  ?     I 


256  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

took  the  safest  way,  for  by  living  among  the  Yankees,  a  man  gets 
very  practical.  So  going  down  to  the  landing-place,  at  once,  I 
hired  a  boat,  and  went  out  to  the  vessel  to  fetch  the  trunk  myself. 
When  I  reached  the  place  where  she  lay — and  I  had  noticed  it 
carefully  enough,  not  far  from  a  small  American  sloop- of-war — 
the  "  Magnolia"  was  really  gone,  and  pulling  outside  the  moored 
vessel,  I  could  just  see  her  going  down  with  the  current,  under 
her  mizen  and  foretopsail  and  jib  toward  the  entrance.  Offering 
my  boatman  five  dollars  if  he  would  take  me  on  board  in  time  to 
get  the  trunk  out,  he  bent  to  his  oars,  and  after  an  hour's  hard 
pull,  the  breeze  being  very  weak,  we  overtook  the  vessel  just 
opposite  Alcatrazes.  The  captain  of  the  "  Magnolia"  assured  me 
he  intended  to  come  to  anchor  again,  and  go  on  shore  once  more, 
where  he  would  have  delivered  my  trunk  most  certainly,  but  I 
preferred  taking  it  with  me  now.  In  justice  to  the  agent  though, 
I  must  mention  that  he  returned  me  the  five  dollars  I  paid  the 
boatman. 

I  now  took  passage  on  board  another  barque,  under  English 
colors,  the  "  Jane  Remorino,"  which  was  chartered  by  a  house 
in  San  Francisco  to  go  to  Manilla,  via  Honolulu,  and  bring  back 
a  cargo  of  sugar  ;  and  we  were  just  ready  to  start,  when  a  strong 
gale  sprung  up,  and  made  us  stick  to  our  anchors.  But  even 
here  we  lay  in  rather  a  dangerous  position  between  the  shipping, 
having  other  vessels,  mostly  riding  at  single  anchor,  all  around  us ; 
so  our  captain  determined  on  going  farther  down  with  the  tide  to 
be  out  of  harm's  way,  and  fastening  our  lines  to  the  nearest  ship, 
we  dropped  down  slowly,  feeling  our  way. 

Our  captain  being  a  Spaniard  himself,  had  a  good  many  leather 
ropes  in  his  rigging.  His  tow  ropes,  in  fact,  were  of  the  same 
stuff;  and  on  passing  a  small  English  barque — whose  captain,  an 
old,  weather-beaten  tar,  with  the  cook  and  Newfoundland  dog, 
seemed  the  only  living  souls  on  board — we  hailed  the  vessel. 

The  English  captain,  who  had  seen  us  coming,  was  standing 
on  his  forecastle  to  catch  the  line  thrown  over  himself,  and  fasten 
it,  glad  enough,  most  likely,  to  get  us  out  of  his  neighborhood  in 
such  weather ;  but  he  hardly  felt  the  line  in  his  hand,  when  he 
held  it  up  quite  surprised — and  I  never  shall  forget  the  face  with 
which  he  looked  first  at  the  rope  and  then  at  us,  exclaiming  in 
mute  astonishment :  "  Leather,  by  G —  !" 

We  got  out  at  last,  dropped  both  anchors,  and  lay  here  till  the 


SAi\  FRANCISCO  IN  THE  AUTUMN  OF  1850.  257 

storm  had  blown  over.  In  the  midst  of  the  gale,  on  the  21st, 
the  steamer  with  the  United  States'  mail  came  in  and  passed  us. 
Next  morning,  our  captain  went  on  shore  again  for  letters  and 
newspapers,  and  the  latter  we  got  to  the  12th  of  Octoher  from 
New  York,  hut  no  letters,  there  being  no  possibility  of  getting 
letters  out  of  the  post-office  until  thirty-six  hours  after  the  arrival 
of  the  mail,  and  therefore,  though  I  knew  letters  from  home 
might  be  lying  for  me  in  that  miserable  little  building,  I  could 
not  get  them — how  had  I  longed  for  them  during  nearly  six 
months  ! — and  must  now  leave  them  behind.  And  as  it  after- 
ward turned  out,  there  had  been  really  two  for  me,  which  I  only 
missed  by  a  few  hours,  and  which  were  sent  after  me  first  to 
Honolulu  and  then  to  Australia,  missing  me  at  Sydney  again, 
traveling  back  twice  between  Adelaide  and  the  former  place,  till 
I  got  them  finally  in  New  South  Wales,  nine  months  old. 

But  there  was  no  help  for  it.  With  daybreak,  next  morning, 
the  weather  cleared  up ;  and,  with  light  breezes  and  calms,  we 
dropped  down  nearly  to  the  fort,  lowering  one  anchor  again,  and 
waiting  for  the  ebbing  tide.  In  the  evening,  a  light  breeze  sprung 
up.  A  pilot  came  on  board,  and  tacking  out  in  company  with 
three  other  vessels,  we  made  the  outer  passage  just  at  sunset,  the 
pilot  leaving  us  rather  quickly  to  get  back  to  San  Francisco  that 
night,  and  telling  the  captain  he  could  clear  the  northern  shore 
well  upon  the  next  tack. 

So  farewell,  California  !  The  rough  singing  of  the  sailors 
sounded  in  my  ears  like  the  chimes  of  home  !  Thy  rocky  coasts 
are  already  fading  away  in  the  surrounding  gloom,  and  only  the 
white  breakers — half  in  greeting,  half  in  menace — gleam  through 
the  night  as  they  repeat  the  burthen  of  their  old  war  songs  ! 


SOUTH    SEA   ISLANDS, 
CHAPTER  I. 

PROM  SAN  FRANCISCO  TO  HONOLULU. 

OUTSIDE  the  "Golden  Gate" — at  last !  Only  the  man  who  has 
himself  once  left  a  gold  country,  can  have  an  idea  of  what  I  felt, 
on  seeing  once  again  the  wide  and  open  sea  with  a  new  adven- 
turous life  before  me,  while  all  the  toil  and  hardships  of  Califor- 
nia, blessed  California  ! — had  been  safely  endured. 

Safely  ?  We  had  not  yet  done  with  it.  Our  pilot  seemed  to 
care  less  about  taking  us  out  of  the  harbor,  than  about  getting 
his  receipt  for  it  from  the  captain,  and  when  he  left  us,  we  were 
not  nearly  free  of  the  dangers  of  the  coast.  He  had  told  us  we 
could  clear  the  coast  well  on  our  next  tack,  but,  though  our  little 
bark  sailed  well  on  the  wind,  we  soon  found  how  strongly  the 
flowing  tide  set  in  against  us,  and  drifted  us*  toward  the  danger- 
ous coast — so  we  had  to  tack  again. 

A  nasty  ground  swell  running  near,  the  coast  being  also  against 
us,  we  had  every  prospect  of  a  disagreeable  night.  The  weather 
was  cold  and  uncomfortable  too,  so  I  went  at  last  down  into  the 
cabin,  read  for  about  half  an  hour,  and  determined  on  going  to 
bed.  I  had  hardly  done  so,  and  was  not  half  asleep,  when  I  felt 
the  ship  suddenly  receive  a  shock  and  tremble  from  stem  to  stern. 
She  had  most  certainly  struck  something ;  and  jumping  in  no 
small  hurry  out  of  my  bunk,  I  heard  our  other  passenger,  an 
old  Swiss  gentleman,  who  had  remained  on  deck,  cry  with  an 
anxious  voice,  which  I  shall  never  forget:  "And  are  we  really 
lost  ?" 

This  was  pleasant.  Huddling  on  my  clothes  as  fast  as  I  could, 
in  a  few  minutes  I  reached  the  deck,  and  arrived  there  just  in 
time  for  a  second  shock  :  the  ship  grated  on  the  sand  again,  and 


FROM  SAN  FRANCISCO  TO  HONOLULU.       259 

the  white  waves  of  the  neighboring  surf  dashed  around  us,  but 
we  were  still  afloat;  the  captain  himself  hove  the  lead,  and  found 
five  fathoms,  and  the  order  was  given  to  tack  again. 

The  next  minute  was  a  scene  of  confusion  ;  the  vessel  would 
not  obey  her  helm,  we  could  not  tack,  while  every  moment  we 
might  dash  on  some  hidden  bar  toward  which  we  were  perhaps 
driving  as  fast  as  the  current  could  carry  us.  But  we  soon  found 
out  the  cause,  the  tiller  having  been  broken  by  the  second  shock, 
the  poor  "  Jane"  could  no  longer  be  steered,  and  "Down  with 
your  anchor  !"  sounded  hoarsely  and  omkiously  over  the  deck.  A 
few  seconds  afterward,  the  heavy  anchor  rattled  down  in  five 
fathoms  water  with  forty  fathoms  of  chain  ;  and  heading  against 
the  ground  swell  which  here  looked  very  much  like  breakers, 
the  vessel  lay,  under  a  flutter  of  loosened  sails,  amidst  the  deafen- 
ing noise  of  falling  spars,  and  the  loud  commands  of  the  officers, 
quietly  'fore  anchor. 

By  this  time  there  was  hardly  a  breeze  stirring,  but  the  sky 
looked  dark  and  threatening,  and  the  captain  himself  did  not 
seem  very  easy.  He  saw  the  damage  repaired,  and  gave  orders 
before  he  went  below,  that  he  should  be  called  at  the  least  sign 
of  a  fresher  breeze. 

Soon  after  midnight  I  awoke  on  hearing  the  rattling  of  the 
heavy  chain  again  through  the  hawse-hole.  The  wind  was  howl- 
ing, and  whistling  sft  the  same  time  through  the  blocks  and  ropes, 
and  the  poor  ship  was  working  heavily  against  a  strong  and 
boisterous  sea. 

Not  feeling  quite  comfortable  in  my  dark  cabin,  I  went  on 
deck,  and  found  things  as  unpromising  as  possible.  The  sky  was 
covered  with  dark  clouds,  the  wind  howled  dismally,  and  two 
men  were  watching  the  lead-line  to  see  if  the  vessel  was  drifting 
again.  She  had  done  so  a  little  while  before,  and  they  had  given 
her  about  thirty  fathoms  more  chain.  Fortunately,  the  ship  was 
a  fine,  new,  and  strongly-built  vessel,  with  chains  and  anchors 
above  her  size,  but  the  wind  and  waves  rose  higher  and  higher, 
and  the  poor  "Jane"  worked  more  heavily  every  minute. 

The  captain  was  on  deck  again,  and  the  chain  struck  a  couple 
of  times  so  loudly  that  we  thought  it  must  snap  asunder.  Every 
thing  was  made  ready  to  let  go  the  second  anchor ;  and  the  wind, 
gaining  strength  with  every  half-hour,  seemed  determined  on 
driving  us  upon  the  sand.  "We  had  but  four  fathoms  left,  and 


260  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

only  our  being  in  ballast  saved  us  from  striking  against  the  hard 
and  dangerous  bottom. 

If  the  wind  had  held  on  with  the  same  force  till  morning,  I 
don't  know  if  even  the  second  anchor  could  have  saved  us,  but 
at  about  two  o'clock,  the  worst  of  it  seemed  over.  Still  there 
was  enough  left  to  keep  the  waves  in  agitated  and  heavy  mo- 
tion ;  and  when  day  broke,  we  found  how  near  we  had  been 
drifted  that  night  against  the  dark  and  threatening  rocky  shore. 
Near  the  entrance  we  were  exposed  at  the  same  time  to  the 
whole  powerful  influence  of  the  strong  tide,  but  this  was  now  in 
our  favor,  for  against  the  turning  of  the  tide,  we  commenced 
taking  in  chain ;  and  after  nearly  three  hours  hard  and  steady 
labor,  with  a  very  weak-handed  crew,  but  with  the  tide  now 
helping  us  to  clear  the  coast,  we  got  the  anchor  home,  and  with 
all  sails  set,  as  close  on  the  wind  as  we  could  go,  we  sailed  round 
the  barren  and  rocky  shore  of  the  Californian  coast. 

We  had  to  tack  all  day  to  clear  the  dangerous  shore,  and  it 
was  not  till  nightfall  that  the  wind  improved  a  few  points,  and 
allowed  us  to  make  the  open  sea.  That  night  we  passed  the 
Farallones,  a  couple  of  ugly  rocks,  nearly  opposite  the  entrance 
of  San  Francisco  Bay,  and  the  next  evening  lost  sight  of  the 
land. 

From  that  time  we  had,  with  the  exception  of  some  short 
calms,  a  tolerably  good  breeze,  and  entered  on  the  30th  of  Nov- 
ember, in  134°  W.  long,  of  Greenwich,  and  30°  N.  lat.,  the  north- 
western trade-winds,  which  carried  us  toward  the  islands.  But 
these  do  not  blow  the  whole  distance ;  the  farther  we  went  to- 
ward the  southwest  and  the  tropics,  the  more  northeasterly  the 
wind  became,  and  from  the  4th  of  December  we  struck  the  east- 
erly trade- winds. 

The  weather  was  most  beautiful,  the  thermometer  standing  in 
the  cool  cabin,  at  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning,  at  79°  ;  but  the 
life  on  board  was  monotonous  enough.  The  only  amusement  I 
had  was  noticing  the  different  characters  around  me,  and  no 
place  in  the  world  can  show,  in  that  respect,  better  specimens 
than  California,  where  originals  have  collected  from  every  part 
of  the  globe  ;  and  masters  of  vessels,  if  they  at  that  time  wanted 
to  leave  the  place  again,  were  obliged  to  take  nearly  any  body 
who  offered,  sailor  or  not,  only  to  get  a  crew  together. 

The  vessel  was  built  at  Malta,  and  sailed  under  English  col- 


FROM  SAN  FRANCISCO  TO  HONOLULU.       201 

ors ;  the  captain  was  a  Spaniard,  born  at  Gibraltar,  his  first  mate 
an  Italian,  a  drunken  and  noisy  fellow,  and  his  second  mate  a 
brother  of  his,  a  young  fellow  who  had  only  made  one  voyage 
before,  and  who,  as  he  spoke  a  little  English,  had  to  keep  the 
journal  in  that  language. 

The  steward  was  a  boy  from  the  Mauritius,  who  spoke  En- 
glish, French,  and  Spanish ;  and  the  crew,  with  the  exception 
of  a  Portuguese,  were  all  English  and  Irish. 

The  captain's  brother  and  the  first  mate  carried  on  an  unin- 
terrupted quarrel ;  and  the  latter,  when  he  found  that  they  com- 
menced keeping  him  on  a  short  allowance  of  grog,  went  down 
slyly  himself  to  a  cask  and  tapped  it  for  more. 

In  a  drunken  fit  he  began  quarreling  with  the  steward,  too ; 
and  the  second  mate,  who  called  him  always  "  boatswain,"  and 
he  didn't  seem  himself  to  know  whether  he  was  boatswain  or 
mate,  entered  the  following  paragraph  in  his  journal.  A  singu- 
lar fact  is  connected  with  these  few  lines  ;  and  whenever  I  read 
them  I  feel  my  head  swimming,  as  if  the  room  turned  round 
with  me. 

"  The  B'man  Geogio  makes  question  with  the  steward,  when 
this  was  busy  in  taking  out  plates  of  the  deck  sterm-table,  whay 
he  called  the  steward  for  to  carry  watter  from  bukets  to  a  barrel, 
and  the  saylors  said  for  many  times  that  he  want  do  for  to  carry 
the  crew  out ;  the  steward  said  that  saw  him  in  the  sterich  rob- 
ing brandy  from  a  cask,  and  proof  that  it  was  so  when  he  sleep 
in  the  windlass  as  a  drokker." 

B'rnan  Geogio  had  been  found  one  fine  afternoon  on  his  watch, 
just  after  this  little  spree,  very  comfortably  stowed  away  in  the 
lee  of  the  long-boat :  the  last  part  of  the  entry  should  insinuate 
that. 

Monday,  the  9th  of  December,  land  in  sight,  but  far  off  yet. 
About  the  middle  of  the  day  we  came  nearer — naked  and  darkly 
threatening  volcano  mountains — are  those  the  South  Sea  Islands  ? 

We  had  sighted  some  of  the  eastern  islands  of  the  Sandwich 
group  ;  the  next  morning  at  day-break  we  neared  Oahu,  but  even 
this  island — the  principal  one,  since  it  contains  the  residence  of 
his  Majesty  Kemehameha  III. — displayed  nothing  but  barren  and 
naked  mountains.  Not  even  with  a  telescope  could  I  discover 
that  luxurious  vegetation  with  which  I  had,  in  my  imagination, 
clothed  these  islands  ;  and  only  on  coming  nearer  and  nearer  the 


260  JOUENEY  ROUND  THE  WOULD. 

only  our  being  in  ballast  saved  us  from  striking  against  the  hard 
and  dangerous  bottom. 

If  the  wind  had  held  on  with  the  same  force  ti]l  morning,  I 
don't  know  if  even  the  second  anchor  could  have  saved  us,  but 
at  about  two  o'clock,  the  worst  of  it  seemed  over.  Still  there 
was  enough  left  to  keep  the  waves  in  agitated  and  heavy  mo- 
tion ;  and  when  day  broke,  we  found  how  near  we  had  been 
drifted  that  night  against  the  dark  and  threatening  rocky  shore. 
Near  the  entrance  we  were  exposed  at  the  same  time  to  the 
whole  powerful  influence  of  the  strong  tide,  but  this  was  now  in 
our  favor,  for  against  the  turning  of  the  tide,  we  commenced 
taking  in  chain ;  and  after  nearly  three  hours  hard  and  steady 
labor,  with  a  very  weak-handed  crew,  but  with  the  tide  now 
helping  us  to  clear  the  coast,  we  got  the  anchor  home,  and  with 
all  sails  set,  as  close  on  the  wind  as  we  could  go,  we  sailed  round 
the  barren  and  rocky  shore  of  the  Californian  coast. 

We  had  to  tack  all  day  to  clear  the  dangerous  shore,  and  it 
was  not  till  nightfall  that  the  wind  improved  a  few  points,  and 
allowed  us  to  make  the  open  sea.  That  night  we  passed  the 
Farallones,  a  couple  of  ugly  rocks,  nearly  opposite  the  entrance 
of  San  Francisco  Bay,  and  the  next  evening  lost  sight  of  the 
land. 

From  that  time  we  had,  with  the  exception  of  some  short 
calms,  a  tolerably  good  breeze,  and  entered  on  the  30th  of  Nov- 
ember, in  134°  W.  long,  of  Greenwich,  and  30°  N.  lat,  the  north- 
western trade-winds,  which  carried  us  toward  the  islands.  But 
these  do  not  blow  the  whole  distance ;  the  farther  we  went  to- 
ward the  southwest  and  the  tropics,  the  more  northeasterly  the 
wind  became,  and  from  the  4th  of  December  we  struck  the  east- 
erly trade- winds. 

The  weather  was  most  beautiful,  the  thermometer  standing  in 
the  cool  cabin,  at  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning,  at  79°  ;  but  the 
life  on  board  was  monotonous  enough.  The  only  amusement  I 
had  was  noticing  the  different  characters  around  me,  and  no 
place  in  the  world  can  show,  in  that  respect,  better  specimens 
than  California,  where  originals  have  collected  from  every  part 
of  the  globe  ;  and  masters  of  vessels,  if  they  at  that  time  wanted 
to  leave  the  place  again,  were  obliged  to  take  nearly  any  body 
who  offered,  sailor  or  not,  only  to  get  a  crew  together. 

The  vessel  was  built  at  Malta,  and  sailed  under  English  col- 


FROM  SAN  FRANCISCO  TO  HONOLULU.       201 

ors ;  the  captain  was  a  Spaniard,  born  at  Gibraltar,  his  first  mate 
an  Italian,  a  drunken  and  noisy  fellow,  and  his  second  mate  a 
brother  of  his,  a  young  fellow  who  had  only  made  one  voyage 
before,  and  who,  as  he  spoke  a  little  English,  had  to  keep  the 
journal  in  that  language. 

The  steward  was  a  boy  from  the  Mauritius,  who  spoke  En- 
glish, French,  and  Spanish ;  and  the  crew,  with  the  exception 
of  a  Portuguese,  were  all  English  and  Irish. 

The  captain's  brother  and  the  first  mate  carried  on  an  unin- 
terrupted quarrel ;  and  the  latter,  when  he  found  that  they  com- 
menced keeping  him  on  a  short  allowance  of  grog,  went  down 
slyly  himself  to  a  cask  and  tapped  it  for  more. 

In  a  drunken  fit  he  began  quarreling  with  the  steward,  too ; 
and  the  second  mate,  who  called  him  always  "  boatswain,"  and 
he  didn't  seem  himself  to  know  whether  he  was  boatswain  or 
mate,  entered  the  following  paragraph  in  his  journal.  A  singu- 
lar fact  is  connected  with  these  few  lines  ;  and  whenever  I  read 
them  I  feel  my  head  swimming,  as  if  the  room  turned  round 
with  me. 

"  The  B'man  Geogio  makes  question  with  the  steward,  when 
this  was  busy  in  taking  out  plates  of  the  deck  sterm-table,  whay 
he  called  the  steward  for  to  carry  watter  from  bukets  to  a  barrel, 
and  the  saylors  said  for  many  times  that  he  want  do  for  to  carry 
the  crew  out ;  the  steward  said  that  saw  him  in  the  sterich  rob- 
ing brandy  from  a  cask,  and  proof  that  it  was  so  when  he  sleep 
in  the  windlass  as  a  drokker." 

B'rnan  Geogio  had  been  found  one  fine  afternoon  on  his  watch, 
just  after  this  little  spree,  very  comfortably  stowed  away  in  the 
lee  of  the  long-boat :  the  last  part  of  the  entry  should  insinuate 
that. 

Monday,  the  9th  of  December,  land  in  sight,  but  far  off  yet. 
About  the  middle  of  the  day  we  came  nearer — naked  and  darkly 
threatening  volcano  mountains — are  those  the  South  Sea  Islands  ? 

We  had  sighted  some  of  the  eastern  islands  of  the  Sandwich 
group  ;  the  next  morning  at  day-break  we  neared  Oahu,  but  even 
this  island — the  principal  one,  since  it  contains  the  residence  of 
his  Majesty  Kemehameha  III. — displayed  nothing  but  barren  and 
naked  mountains.  Not  even  with  a  telescope  could  I  discover 
that  luxurious  vegetation  with  which  I  had,  in  my  imagination, 
clothed  these  islands  ;  and  only  on  coming  nearer  and  nearer  the 


262  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

lower  range  of  the  hills  rose  in  sight,  and  showed  shrubs  and  low 
trees,  and  nearer  to  the  shore,  on  some  parts,  a  small  strip  of 
cocoa-nut  trees,  the  proofs  of  a  tropical  sun. 

The  light-house  of  Honolulu  now  appeared,  out  of  a  thin  mist, 
which  covered  the  lower  part  of  the  coast  like  a  vail,  and  we 
could  see  a  number  of  ships  in  the  harbor  itself,  and  outside,  close 
to  the  entrance  of  it,  appearing  to  us,  from  afar,  as  if  they  lay 
right  in  the  very  midst  of  the  coral-reef  breakers,  which  surround 
the  whole  island  with  a  wide  circle,  as  they  do  all  the  islands  of 
the  South  Sea. 

The  sharp  outlines  of  the  rugged  hills  showed  themselves  clearly 
against  the  dark-blue  sky,  which  was  interrupted  by  no  cloud ; 
and  on  approaching  the  entrance  of  the  harbor,  the  little  town  of 
Honolulu,  with  its  dark  masses  of  low  bamboo-huts,  and  its  white 
European-looking  houses,  scattered  all  among  the  former,  and 
even  some  high  and  proud  stone  churches,  and  some  few — but, 
in  fact,  very  few — cocoa-palms,  hove  clearly  in  sight. 


CHAPTER  II. 

HONOLULU. 

THE  nearer  we  drew  to  the  land,  the  more  pleasant  did  I  find 
the  little  town  itself,  and  the  vicinity  of  it.  The  lower  slopes  of 
the  hills  were  clothed  in  a  fresh  and  lively  verdure,  in  which  I 
could  already  discern  thick  shrubs  and  bushes,  while  at  the  same 
time  the  long  line  of  breakers  became  visible,  the  surf  breaking 
and  dashing  over  the  coral  reefs,  which  were  perfectly  hidden  by 
it,  and  only  showing  a  long  white  line  of  dancing  foam  and  froth. 

The  entrance  of  the  harbor  itself  is  most  singular,  and  is  shown 
very  plainly,  not  only  by  some  iron  buoys  which  government  has 
put  here,  but  also  by  the  wrecks  of  two  whalemen,  which  ran 
aground,  one  on  the  right  and  one  on  the  left  side  of  the  entrance, 
and  offer  now,  as  long  as  they  last,  a  most  excellent  land-mark 
for  vessels  entering  the  harbor. 

The  entrance  itself  is  formed  entirely  by  a  natural  channel  in 
the  coral ;  and  these  channels  present,  in  fact,  a  perfect  natural 
curiosity  in  all  these  islands,  though  their  cause  may  be  easily 
guessed.  The  coral  is  entirely  a  salt-water  plant  or  formation, 
growing  out  of  the  sea,  or  built  up  through  thousands  of  years  by 
small  but  industrious  insects,  to  the  surface  of  the  ocean  ;  but  the 
coral  can  not  agree  with  sweet  water,  whatever  be  the  cause  of 
its  existence  ;  and  wherever,  all  over  these  islands,  a  fresh-water 
stream  comes  down  from  the  hills,  and  mingles  with  the  briny 
flood,  the  coral  has  given  way  to  let  the  disagreeable  mixture 
pass ;  so  where  these  streams  have  been  strong  enough,  they  have 
worked  perfect  channels,  through  the  wall-like  masses  of  coral. 

Once  inside  this  channel,  and  protected  against  the  raging  sea 
by  the  very  reefs  that  at  first  threaten  to  destroy  the  approaching 
ships,  the  anchorage  is  perfectly  safe  in  only  about  fifteen  fathoms 
of  water ;  while  outside  the  harbor  the  coral  bank  shelves  down 
at  so  great  an  angle  as  to  make  nearly  every  ship  drag  her  anchor 
if  it  come  on  to  blow  ofF  land.  The  depth  of  the  water,  too,  is 


264  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLJJ-. 

very  great,  even  close  to  the  reefs,  and  anchorage  can  hardly  be 
found  under  thirty  fathoms. 

Not  long  before  our  arrival,  a  vessel  had  come  in  from  Califor- 
nia, and  the  captain,  who  seemed  to  be  perfectly  certain  of  find- 
ing good  anchorage  at  hardly  a  cable's  length  from  the  reefs, 
dropped  his  anchor,  first  with  thirty,  afterward  with  forty,  fifty, 
and  sixty  fathoms,  and  let  go  at  last  the  whole  length  of  chain, 
without  even  finding  bottom.  An  American  man-of-war,  that  lay 
at  that  time  in  the  harbor,  had  to  send  him  her  boats,  merely  to 
get  his  chain  up  again. 

But  I  soon  forgot  even  the  foaming  reefs  and  the  cocoa-palms 
on  shore  in  the  new  life  we  found  ourselves  surrounded  by.  All 
over  the  smooth  water  of  the  inner  bay,  and  up  to  the  very  en- 
trance, there  were  a  quantity  of  canoes,  with  their  singular  crews 
and  peculiar  outriggers,  gliding  backward  and  forward,  fishing  or 
idling,  and  often  nearly  touching  the  surf  with  its  roaring  and  glit- 
tering waves.  The  "  Jane  Remorino,"  not  intending  to  stop  longer 
at  the  island  than  about  twenty-four  hours,  would  not  enter  the 
harbor.  Our  anchor,  with  fifty  fathoms  out,  dropped  opposite  the 
entrance  down  to  the  bottom ;  and  half  an  hour  afterward,  the 
harbor-master,  a  stout,  comfortable-looking  American,  came  on 
board  to  ask  "  how  we  were  ?"  though  not  merely  by  way  of 
compliment,  but  in  right  good  earnest.  As  he  looked  over  the 
ship — inquiring  with  a  look  and  nod,  "Well,  how  are  you  all?" 
and  I  as  a  kind  of  spokesman  answered  him,  "  Thank  you  tolera- 
bly;  and  you?"  Seriously  shaking  his  head,  he  said,  "Well,  I 
am  well,  but  that  is  nothing  :  I  must  know  how  you  really  are, 
on  account  of  the  cholera" — with  a  strong  accent  on  the  last 
syllable.  But  even  in  that  respect  we  could  satisfy  him,  for  there 
was  nobody  unwell  on  board,  only  Geogio,  who  had  had  a  small  fit 
of  the  delirium  tremens  a  few  days  before,  and  looked  rather  sober 
to-day.  We  had  also  a  perfect  bill  of  health  from  San  Francisco. 
Though  the  cholera  was  at  the  time  in  the  city  of  the  golden 
empire,  the  government  of  California  knew  very  well  that  it  would 
not  infect  the  islands ;  and  they  had  here  too  much  sense  to  put 
ships  that  came  from  a  sick  country  in  a  long  quarantine,  when 
the  salubrious  climate  in  itself  was  a  perfect  antidote  against  all 
such  diseases. 

In  lieu  of  a  white  flag — the  sign  of  all  being  well  on  board — 
we  hoisted  an  old  towel,  rather  the  worse  for  wear,  on  the  fore- 


HONOLULU.  265 

top,  and  went  soon  after  with  the  harbor-master,  who  is  also  the 
pilot  of  the  place,  to  town. 

Between  the  foaming  reefs  we  entered  the  mile-wide  channel, 
passed  a  quantity  of  dirty-looking  whalers,  that  had  come  in  from 
their  summer's  cruise,  and  were  repairing  and  taking  in  provisions, 
and  touched  about  a  half  an  hour  afterward  the  coral-block  walls 
of  the  levee  of  Honolulu,  where  a  parcel  of  chattering  natives, 
partially  clad  in  the  most  lively  colors,  threw  themselves,  as  if 
they  had  been  the  most  perfectly  civilized  beings,  on  my  baggage, 
to  carry  the  different  packs  and  boxes,  most  likely  to  just  as  many 
different  hotels  and  restaurants  on  shore.  But  I  did  not  trust  this 
red  gentry  enough  to  take  them  right  at  once  as  guides  and  por- 
ters, but  first  drove  them  out  of  the  boat  again  on  shore,  and  left 
my  things  in  charge  of  the  sailors,  till  I  inquired  after  a  good 
hotel.  I  was  recommended  to  a  French  one,  "  Hotel  de  France," 
and  with  the  help  of  some  "  kanakas,"  as  the  islanders  are  called, 
and,  in  fact,  call  themselves,  and  with  a  hand-cart,  I  soon  took 
my  little  property,  consisting  of  a  trunk,  my  hammock,  and  a 
parcel  of  Californian  curiosities,  to  my  next  destination. 

While  going  up  to  the  street  I  was  very  nearly  and  most  in- 
nocently creating  a  perfect  hubbub.  I  carried  a  large  pickle- 
bottle  in  my  hand,  which  contained  a  quantity  of  snakes,  lizards, 
grubs,  spiders,  &c.,  collected  in  California,  and  preserved  in 
alcohol,  because  I  did  not  like  to  have  it  shaken  on  the  cart, 
and  perhaps  be  broken  ;  but  the  sight  of  the  animals  attracting 
a  passing  Indian,  inquisitive  and  curious  as  all  of  them  are,  he 
stepped  up  to  the  bottle,  and  a  cry  of  admiration  collected  in  a 
few  minutes  a  whole  crowd  around  me,  which  grew,  as  we  went 
on,  in  an  incredible  way.  To  save  myself  and  the  bottle,  I  had 
to  put  it  at  last  on  the  cart,  and  cover  it  up  with  my  blanket, 
glad  to  find  that  the  police-officers,  of  whom  there  is  a  great 
number  in  Honolulu,  had  taken  up  the  matter,  and  commenced 
clearing  the  street. 

The  Hotel  de  France  is  a  tolerably  good  house,  and  charged 
very  good  prices  at  the  time,  owing  to  the  neighborhood  of  the 
El  Dorado,  of  course — twelve  dollars  a  week  for  board  and  lodg- 
ing on  an  Island  in  the  South  Sea  looks  at  least  very  much  like 
it ;  but  there  was  a  comfort  in  the  whole  arrangement,  a  clean 
bed,  a  lofty  room,  and  a  good  table,  so  I  did  not  grumble. 

But  if  I  had  been  astonished  on  a  first  view  at  seeing  the  bar- 

M 


266  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

ren  mountains  of  islands  which  I  had  thought  covered  with 
luxuriant  vegetation,  I  was  more  so  when  wandering  through 
the  streets  of  the  perfect  little  town,  at  signs  of  civilization  I  had 
really  not  looked  for  in  these  latitudes.  Coming  to  the  Sand- 
wich Islands,  and  expecting  to  find  here  a  nearly  wild  South 
Sea  island,  to  roam  about  through  thick  groves  of  cocoa-palms, 
and  other  fruit-trees  with  the  half-tamed  inhabitants,  beautiful 
and  interesting  in  their  natural  and  happy  life — and  what  did  I 
find  on  the  very  spot  where  I  had  fancied  a  luxurious  tropical 
vegetation  ?  bowling-alleys,  billiard-tables,  livery  stables,  and 
tap-rooms,  and  as  sober  and  dull  faces  as  I  could  have  wished 
for  in  any  larger  town  in  Europe  or  America. 

But  no,  the  influence  of  the  Catholic  missionaries  had  not  yet 
destroyed  all  the  peculiar  qualities  of  the  race ;  the  natives  still 
possessed  the  light  brown  skin,  the  black,  silky  curled  hair,  the 
glowing  dark  eye,  the  quick,  lively  motions  arid  gesticulations 
my  eye  sought,  and  met  even  on  the  landing,  and  the  most  sin- 
gular groups.  A  great  number  of  the  natives  had  collected  round 
the  houses,  some  of  them  squatting  down — a  posture  they  seem 
to  admire  very  much — while  others  were  standing  and  ges- 
ticulating, talking  about  the  arriving  or  departing  ships,  and 
laughing  and  chatting  with  the  girls,  who,  in  calico  frocks 
of  very  lively  colors,  walked  up  and  down  along  the  "  wharft,"  or 
stopped  to  have  a  little  talk  with  the  young  men,  and  laugh- 
ed, and  danced,  and  shook  their  long,  dark  tresses  round  their 
temples. 

The  ladies  most  certainly  deserve  our  first  attention ;  they 
are,  without  exception,  dressed  in  long,  loose  gowns  of  gaudy 
colors,  preferring,  as  it  seems,  yellow  and  red,  some  of  them 
wearing  a  small  girdle,  or  a  gay  shawl  tied  round  their  waist, 
which,  as  it  revealed  their  forms  more  fully,  could  only  be  an 
improvement ;  for  these  wild  island  girls,  with  their  dark  com- 
plexion and  glowing  eyes,  their  slender  and  voluptuous  forms, 
and  quick  and  graceful  motions — graceful,  because  they  are 
natural — are  really  most  lovely  beings. 

Many  of  these  girls  wear  over  their  calico  dresses  silken  ker- 
chiefs or  shawls,  but  most  all  of  them  flowers  or  another  orna- 
ment, made  of  red  and  yellow  wool,  round  their  temples  and 
upon  their  long  beautiful  tresses,  intended  as  an  imitation  of  the 
more  costly  feather  adornment  of  the  same  colors  and  shape. 


HONOLULU.  267 

Nearly  all  of  them  go  bare-footed,  and,  in  fact,  with  very  little 
clothing,  except  this  gown,  and  a  piece  of  cloth  tied  round  their 
waist  underneath  it. 

The  men  are  dressed  still  more  simply,  if  possible  ;  they  all 
wear  the  malo  or  maro,  a  small  piece  of  cloth  round  their  loins, 
some  a  shirt  with  it,  others  a  pair  of  pantaloons,  very  few  both. 
A  great  many  of  them  are  also  tattooed,  but  the  missionaries 
wage  a  furious  war  against  tattooing,  as  an  old  heathen  custom, 
and  the  poor  fellows  who  took  pride  in  it  in  former  years,  have 
to  run  about  now  without  their  loved  ornament.  All  of  them 
wear  the  small  band  round  their  loins,  and  some  of  them  go 
entirely  naked,  except  this  malo  ;  but  these  are  very  seldom  seen 
in  the  town,  though  it  is  not  long  ago  since  even  the  mission- 
aries, preaching  Christian  humility,  had  their  own  wives  pulled 
about  through  the  streets  by  such  human  beings  in  small  wheel- 
chairs. The  European  residents  there,  talked,  however,  a  good 
deal  about  it,  and  these  horse  kanakas  now  wear,  at  least,  shirts 
— but  they  pull  yet. 

The  great  majority  of  the  Sandwich  islanders,  and  all  on 
Oahu,  are  Christians — that  is,  at  least,  in  outward  forms.  They 
"do  not  any  longer  believe  in  the  fire-goddess  Pele,  who  had  her 
residence,  as  they  formerly  thought,  in  the  boiling  crater  of  the 
Hawaiian  Mountain,  but  in  a  more  reasonable  and  Christian-like 
devil,  who  resides  in  the  bottomless  pit.  But  in  many  other  re- 
spects they  look  like  heathens  still,  and  to  my  fancy,  are  not  the 
worse  for  it. 

Missionary  zeal  has  most  certainly  never  shown  itself  in  any 
place  of  the  wide  world  more  warmly  and  ardently  than  on  these 
very  islands.  Most  of  the  original  missionaries,  and  I  believe 
nearly  all  of  them,  came  over  from  America ;  finding  here  a 
glorious  climate,  a  kind  and  friendly  people,  who  received  them 
into  their  families,  gave  them  homes  and  food,  and  knowing,  at 
the  same  time,  the  excellent  situation  of  the  island,  they  began 
their  work  of  reformation  in  good  earnest,  and  settled  among  these 
tribes.  Of  course,  they  had  houses  themselves,  and  gardens,  and 
every  other  thing  necessary  for  a  comfortable  life ;  and  now  the 
missionaries'  estates  are  among  the  best  on  the  island. 

The  Catholic  missionaries  produced  very  disagreeable  conse- 
quences for  the  poor  islanders.  In  the  first  place,  they  became 
confused  in  their  religious  belief.  They  had  done  away  with 


268  JOURNEY   ROUND   THE  WORLD. 

their  own  religion,  with  their  own  gods  and  customs,  because 
white  men  had  come  and  told  them  that  the  religion  of  their 
fathers  was  contrary  to  the  will  of  God,  and  that  they  would 
teach  them  the  only  true  belief;  and  now  another  sect  came, 
calling  themselves  Christians  just  as  well,  who  had  quite  differ- 
ent ceremonies,  and  which  the  first  priests  told  them  were  nothing 
better  than  idolatry.  Besides  this,  the  French  frigate  "  L'Arte- 
mise"  afterward  came  into  the  port  of  Honolulu,  to  demand 
redress  for  grievances  suffered  by  French  subjects,  and  request 
liberty  of  religion  throughout  the  islands,  as  well  as  twenty 
thousand  dollars,  as  a  guarantee  for  the  king's  future  conduct 
toward  France,  "  which  sum  the  government  (of  France)  would 
restore  to  him  when  they  considered  that  the  accompanying 
treaty  had  been  faithfully  complied  with." 

Poor  Kamehameha  had  really  to  come  forward  with  his 
twenty  thousand  dollars — a  sum  he  had  to  borrow  from  his  for- 
eign subjects ;  and  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  has  been  free 
from  that  time. 

The  American  missionaries  have  done  a  great  deal  for  the 
knowledge  of  the  language  :  they  have  brought  a  printing-press 
over,  and  printed  not  only  vocabularies  and  school  books,  but  also' 
translated  the  whole  Bible  into  the  Kanaka  language,  a  book 
about  twelve  or  fourteen  inches  thick.  What  the  islanders  really 
think  of  it  all,  I  can  not  tell,  and  it  would  puzzle  others  to  do  so, 
I  think ;  but  they  buy  the  book  and  read,  or  spell  it,  and  are 
most  certainly  Christians. 

Honolulu  itself  is  a  pleasing  little  town ;  it  stands  upon  a 
plain  at  the  opening  of  the  valley  of  Nuanu.  running  across  the 
island  between  high  mountains,  whose  sterile  peaks  give  but  little 
indication  of  the  fertility  of  the  lovely  valleys  at  their  base,  and 
which  look  exactly  as  if  they  had  been  in  former  times  rent 
asunder  by  some  mighty  volcanic  action.  The  town  is  laid 
out  in  wide  and  regular  streets  not  unfrequently  inclosed  with 
adobe  walls,  here  and  there  intersected  by  houses  of  European 
fashion,  built  by  the  foreigners,  or  lined  with  the  low  gloomy 
huts  of  the  natives  themselves. 

Here  and  there  you  find,  in  fact,  most  excellent  stone  build- 
ings, such  as  the  government-house,  with  its  gilt  crown  over  the 
entrance,  and  many  other  private  buildings  and  public  churches. 
But  most  of  the  houses  in  the  business  part  of  the  town  are  built 


HONOLULU.  269 

of  framework  ;  and  the  straw-thatched  huts  of  the  natives  form  a 
kind  of  suburb  to  them. 

The  two  most  strongly  built  edifices — even  the  fort  not  except- 
ed — are  the  custom-house  and  one  of  the  churches,  both  built 
with  blocks  of  coral. 

A  short  distance  from  the  fort,  there  is  also  a  roomy  and  airy 
market-house,  with  stone  pillars,  and  covered  with  tiles  ;  but 
only  very  few  of  the  Indians  make  use  of  it,  seeming  to  prefer 
their  old  thatched  and  low  rows  of  huts  in  the  upper  part  of  the 
town,  which  they  will  not  leave,  I  am  sure,  till  government  pulls 
them  down. 

I  always  like  to  visit  the  market-place  of  a  strange  town,  for 
you  find  the  people  collected  there  in  their  most  natural  form, 
displaying  their  own  habits  and  peculiarities,  and  among  their 
own  produce,  because  they  are  not  alone  sellers  and  buyers,  but 
also  in  their  characters,  as  a  producing  class,  stand  in  contrast 
to  the  consuming  one  ;  and  however  they  may  appear  in  every 
other  situation  of  life,  on  the  market-place  where  they  form  a 
compact  mass  of  one  class  of  individuals,  as  in  their  own  homes, 
we  find  them  in  their  aboriginal  condition. 

Besides  the  originals  themselves — the  dark-skinned  natives  of 
these  islands — the  market-place  of  Honolulu  did  not  offer  any 
thing  extraordinary.  There  was,  in  fact,  apparently  a  perfect 
scarcity  of  produce,  a  most  natural  consequence  of  the  unnat- 
ural export  to  California ;  and  even  the  fish-market  was  very 
poorly  supplied  with  the  different  kinds  of  fish,  caught  most  com- 
monly around  these  shores  and  on  the  coral  banks  inside  the 
reefs. 

Here,  however,  I  saw  the  first  flying  fish  in  the  market,  and 
they  are  the  most  excellent  thing  I  have  ever  tasted.  I  will 
not  deny  that  the  scarcity  of  fresh  meat  in  open  sea,  frequently 
make  us  think  a  fish  caught  there  the  most  delicious  food ;  but 
even  on  shore  I  thought  I  should  prefer  the  flying  fish  to  trout 
itself,  or  any  other  kind  of  the  species  I  had  met  with  before. 

But  though  we  were  living  in  one  of  the  South  Sea  Islands, 
where  I  had  always  imagined  fruit  abounded,  I  found  the  mark- 
et nearly  destitute  of  it.  Bananas,  or  pisangs,  seemed  the  only 
kind  offered  at  a  reasonable  price ;  and  even  these  were  four 
times  as  dear  as  in  Rio  de  Janeiro.  Oranges  they  imported  here 
from  the  Society  Islands,  and  I  had  to  pay  sixpence  for  two. 


270  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

Cocoa-nuts  were  a  shilling  apiece ;  and  even  vegetables,  Irish 
and  sweet  potatoes,  yams  and  cabbages,  bore  a  most  unreasona- 
ble price. 

Besides  the  market,  where  there  are  a  great  number  of  break- 
fast-tables, sheltered  by  the  low  and  often  defective  thatched 
roofs,  of  course  only  for  the  accommodation  of  the  natives  them- 
selves, there  is  a  great  quantity  of  produce  carried  about  through 
the  town  by  single  men,  who  commonly  bear  two  very  large 
calabashes  attached  to  the  extremities  of  an  elastic  pole,  about 
five  or  six  feet  long,  which  they  balance  on  one  of  their  shoul- 
ders, having  one  calabash  hanging  before  and  the  other  behind. 
These  calabashes,  sometimes  twenty  inches  in  diameter,  and 
fitted  with  a  cover  of  the  same  material,  are  inclosed  in  net- 
work, and  frequently  contain  their  favorite  poe  for  the  use  and 
benefit  of  the  natives  only,  also  eggs,  vegetables,  &c.  ;  taking 
back  from  town,  in  the  same  way,  merchandise  which  they 
want  or  do  not  want  at  home. 

The  awkwardness  with  which  they  very  frequently  divide 
their  load  is  peculiar.  After  selling  one  part,  they  never  think 
of  dividing  the  left  into  two  equal  parts  to  preserve  a  balance, 
but  leave  the  one  calabash  and  put  an  adequate  stone  in  the 
other  scale,  even  taking  such  a  weight  home  with  them  for 
miles  over  the  mountain. 

The  poe  is  frequently  described  as  fermented  paste  or  mush, 
made  out  of  the  tarro-root,  and  eaten,  with  utter  contempt  for 
the  use  of  a  spoon,  with  the  forefinger  of  the  right  hand,  which 
they  in  fact,  call  from  this  the  poe-finger — ka-rima-poe. 

The  way  in  which  they  sell  their  goods  is  also  characteristic. 
They  have  not  the  least  idea  how  valuable  time  in  itself  may 
be,  and  a  man  coming  to  market  with  perhaps  a  dozen  of  eggs — 
a  thing  that  very  frequently  happens — will  squat  down  on  the 
ground  with  his  eggs  in  a  flat  calabash  on  his  knees  or  by  his 
side  and  offer  them  for  a  certain  price  which  he  has  made  up 
his  mind  to  get  for  them.  Offer  him  five  cents  less  for  the  whole, 
he  will  only  shake  his  head,  quite  indifferent  how  long  he  may 
have  to  wait  for  another  customer,  and  sit  there  the  next  day 
just  as  patiently  with  his  dozen  eggs  as  if  his  life  depended  upon 
these  few  cents.  The  natives,  on  the  same  principle,  carry  tur- 
keys, for  instance,  over  the  pali  or  abyss  that  divides  the  island 
into  two  parts,  a  distance  of  at  least  six  or  eight  miles  to  Hono- 


HONOLULU.  271 

lulu,  and  fix  a  certain  price  for  the  birds ;  but  if  you  want  to 
buy  them  in  their  own  house,  saving  the  men  the  trouble  and 
labor  of  carrying  the  heavy  birds  such  a  long  distance,  and  em- 
ploying in  the  most  favorable  case  at  least  a  whole  day  of  their 
time,  they  would  not  yield  a  single  cent  of  the  sum  once  fixed 
upon  as  the  price  ef  the  turkeys  :  time  and  traveling,  in  fact,  they 
do  not  count,  and  that  price  they  must  fetch.  Captains  of  vessels, 
therefore,  buy  all  the  produce  they  need  just  as  cheaply  in  the 
market  as  they  would  do  in  the  very  homes  of  the  market  people. 

In  the  town,  a  numerous  band  of  police-officers,  with  their 
blue  uniform  jackets  and  white  trowsers,  kept  very  good  order, 
and  I  did  not  see  a  drunken  native  in  the  streets,  thanks  to  the 
law  prohibiting  as  far  as  possible  the  sale  of  strong  liquors. 
These  police-officers  also  wear  shoes,  a  most  extraordinary  thing 
for  a  native,  and  a  cap  with  a  broad  yellow  stripe  around  it,  on 
which  is  painted  in  large  black  letters  the  word  "  police."  I 
have  seen  three-and-twenty  of  them  leaning  in  one  row  on  a  gar- 
den-plank, and  others  passing  or  coming  and  going,  made  the 
place  look  very  much  like  a  police  bee-hive. 

The  standing  army  of  the  young  state  does  not  appear  equally 
well  organized.  The  treatment  the  king  received  from  foreign 
men-of-war  does  not  appear  to  have  at  all  encouraged  his  majesty 
in  spending  much  money  on  such  defenses  ;  the  natives  were  per- 
fectly aware  that  they  had  not  the  power  to  offer  any  real  oppo- 
sition to  the  enemy's  fleet  or  even  a  single  ship  ;  and  in  spite  of 
not  being  quite  civilized,  they  have  too  much  sense  to  keep  such 
costly  puppets  only  for  show. 

I  visited  the  fort,  but  it  looked  desolate  and  forlorn.  It  stands 
near  the  head  of  the  harbor,  a  large  area,  nearly  square,  in- 
closed by  a  thick  and  comparatively  low  wall  of  coral.  In  the 
centre  of  the  fort  rises  the  flag-staff,  with  the  national  flag — the 
British  Union,  with  alternate  stripes  of  red  and  white.  On  enter- 
ing the  fort,  I  noticed  on  the  left  hand  side  a  low  range  of  build- 
ings appropriated  to  the  use  of  the  governor ;  parallel  to  which 
runs  the  magazine,  a  stone  vault,  ten  or  fifteen  feet  long.  On 
the  right  hand  are  some  low  thatched  houses,  intended  for  pris- 
ons ;  and  the  ramparts  in  front,  toward  the  sea,  were  formerly 
ornamented  and  armed  with  about  fifty  or  sixty  iron  guns  and 
one  brass  one,  but  now  the  place  lay  in  the  most  wild  and  deso- 
late condition. 


272  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

Only  a  year  before,  a  French  merchantman  which  had  tried 
to  smuggle  spirituous  liquors,  had  been  confiscated,  and  the  next 
French  man-of-war — asking  redress  for  the  pretended  grievance, 
and  taking  revenge  when  redress  was  refused — had  threatened 
to  bombard  and  fire  the  town,  but  contented  itself,  after  a  re- 
monstrance from  the  English  and  American  residents  there,  with 
storming  and  demolishing  the  undefended  fort,  for  all  the  native 
soldiers  fled  at  the  first  sign  of  active  hostilities.  They  broke 
down  the  wall  in  several  places,  destroyed  the  gun-carriages,  and 
even  the  cannons  themselves  so  far  as  they  could,  by  knocking 
off  the  cascabels  arid  trunnions. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  the  French  took  with  them  his  Majes- 
ty's little  schooner,  called  after  him,  "  Kamehameha,"  and  never 
brought  it  back  again  ;  and  the  natives  had  not  touched  the  over- 
turned guns  or  carriages  since,  but  they  lay  just  as  the  French 
sailors  and  marines  had  left  them,  strewn  about  in  the  fort,  or  in 
heaps  in  the  different  corners.  But  the  duty  on  spirituous  liquors 
was  not  alone  the  cause  of  this  outrage — religion  had  a  finger  in 
it  also  ;  and  the  missionaries,  only  for  the  sake  of  saving  the 
islanders'  souls,  of  course,  got  the  poor  king  out  of  one  scrape  into 
another,  though  always  assuring  him,  as  soon  as  it  came  to  a 
breach,  that  they  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  political 
laws  of  the  country,  the  king  having  supreme  power  and  most 
certainly  free-will  in  all  such  matters ;  while  everybody  knew 
the  king  did  nothing  without  asking  the  missionaries  first  what 
the  God  of  the  Christians  thought  of  such  subjects,  and  of  course 
the  missionaries,  without  having  any  thing  personally  to  do  with 
such  state  matters,  guided  him,  notwithstanding,  as  they  saw 
proper,  from  Scripture. 

The  natives  had  a  very  kind  and  confiding  sentry  at  the  en- 
trance— a  dark-looking  fellow,  in  an  old  blue  frock-coat  with  red 
facings,  a  high  and  singular-looking  cap  far  back  on  his  thick 
bushy  hair,  and  striped  pantaloons,  without  shoes  or  boots — who 
was  pacing  up  and  down  before  the  entrance,  his  musket  leaning 
peaceably  in  a  corner  of  the  open  gate.  I  went  in  with  the  cap- 
tain of  a  whaler,  a  part  of  whose  sailors  had  deserted,  and  who 
was  going  to  offer  a  reward  for  their  recapture  ;  and  when  we 
entered  the  place,  the  sentry  followed  us  very  politely,  showing 
us  the  way  to  the  governor's  house,  and  leaving  his  gun  at  the 
same  time  unprotected  outside,  at  the  mercy  of  the  passers-by. 


HONOLULU.  273 

I  saw  that  afternoon  a  kind  of  parade  among  a  rather  mixed 
crowd  of  "  regulars,"  some  of  them  carrying — but  I  have  not  the 
least  idea  why — under  a  burning  hot  sun,  two  muskets  instead 
of  one — one  on  their  right  shoulder  and  another  in  their  left  hand. 
I  was  told  also  that,  on  the  order  being  given  to  fire,  the  officers 
of  this  army,  standing  before  the  front,  lay  themselves  deliberately 
down,  of  course  not  to  be  shot  at  by  their  own  soldiers,  and  let 
them  fire  away  over  their  heads  ;  but  I  did  not  see  this  myself. 

But  Honolulu  boasts  a  great  many  other  things — presents  from 
California,  which  floods  the  neighboring  islands  with  natural  and 
unnatural  curiosities,  in  the  true  sense  of  the  words  "  to  astonish 
the  natives  ;"  and  the  poor  fellows  really  are  in  a  state  of  contin- 
ual transition  from  one  wonderful  thing  to  another.  A  year  be- 
fore, a  real  theatre  came  here,  stunning  the  imagination  of  the 
poor  islanders,  who  had  not  even  an  idea  that  such  a  thing  ex- 
isted in  the  world.  After  this,  a  Mr.  Rossiter,  an  Englishman — 
who  called  himself  on  the  bills,  for  reasons  best  known  to  himself, 
Herr  Rossiter — danced  on  the  tight  rope  ;  and  even  while  I  was 
in  Honolulu,  the  ne  plus  ultra  of  all  these  feats  appeared  in  the 
shape  of  some  American  equestrian  performers,  who  came  over 
from  San  Francisco,  bought  raw  horses  on  the  islands,  trained 
them  a  little  while,  and  then  rode  them  in  a  circus  together  with 
a  few  others  they  had  brought  with  them.  Indifferent  as  the 
performances  were,  the  natives  had  never  seen  any  thing  like  it, 
and  thronged  to  the  wonderful  white  men,  who  wore  such  fan- 
tastic dresses,  and  could  ride  in  such  a  funny  way  on  horseback. 
For  once  the  girls  did  not  spend  every  cent  they  could  earn  in 
calicoes,  silks  and  scented  oils,  but  carried  their  half-dollars — - 
much  to  the  discomfiture  of  the  merchants,  who  suffered  a  dead 
loss  by  it — to  the  illuminated  tent  and  the  splendid  music  of  some 
thundering  trumpets  and  a  most  glorious  large  drum,  their  favor- 
ite instrument.  Those  poor  devils  who  could  not  raise  money 
enough  to  see  this  most  extraordinary  spectacle,  pressed,  at  least, 
in  the  evening,  round  the  tent  to  hear  the  performance  gratis, 
going  home  afterward  firmly  convinced  that  they  had  spent  the 
evening  in  a  most  splendid  way. 

The  road  opposite  the  riders'  tent  was,  on  the  evenings  of  a 
performance,  crowded  in  such  a  way  as  hardly  to  allow  any  one 
to  pass,  except  by  free  use  of  his  elbows  and  shoulders. 

But  all  this  was  nothing  in  comparison  to  an  incident  that 


274  JOUENEY  EOtlNB  THE  WORLD. 

happened  several  years  before,  striking,  for  the  first  time,  terror 
to  the  hearts  of  the  quiet  children  of  these  islands  after  they  had 
got  used  to  the  pale  faces  of  the  foreigners. 

Among  the  ibreigners  that  came  out  with  some  French  ships 
from  Europe  was  a  "friseur  and  coiffeur,"  or  fancy  hair-dresser, 
who  set  up  a  shop  in  one  of  the  principal  streets  of  Honolulu. 
On  the  very  first  day,  he  had  perfect  crowds  of  natives  before  his 
door,  by  merely  displaying  some  wigs  and  tresses — of  course,  as 
the  natives  thought,  human  hair  with  the  skin  adhering  to  it. 
But  the  greatest  wonder  happened  the  next  morning.  Soon  after 
daybreak,  there  was  a  perfect  uproar  in  the  town,  and  the  natives 
thronged  from  all  parts  of  the  little  place  toward  the  street  where 
the  Frenchman  lived.  In  half  an  hour,  a  vast  multitude  was 
collected  there,  and  the  rumor  spread  about  like  lightning  that 
the  foreigners  had  cut  off  some  persons'  heads,  and  stuck  them 
up  in  their  window  for  a  show.  There  was,  in  fact,  not  the  least 
doubt  about  it — there  were  the  heads,  and  worst  of  all,  they 
looked  quite  fresh. 

With  great  difficulty,  and  only  by  allowing  half  of  them  to 
touch  the  wax  figures  with  their  "  rima  poe,"  could  they  be  con- 
vinced of  the  truth ;  but  they  kept  coming  for  a  long  time  to  the 
window  to  see  these  heads  ;  and  an  account  of  the  curiosity  was 
sent  over  to  the  other  islands. 

A  most  singular  character  paraded  the  streets  of  Honolulu  at 
the  time  I  staid  there  ;  a  privileged  person,  too,  who  lived  in 
continual  opposition  to  the  police  and  their  ordinances,  and  still 
was  suffered  to  do  as  much  mischief  as  he  possibly  could,  without 
being  punished.  This  character  was  nothing  else  than  a  goat, 
which  had  the  most  singular,  and,  in  fact,  unnatural  affection 
for  all  the  freshly-posted  bills  it  could  reach  any  where  in  the 
place. 

This  old  goat,  having  perfect  leisure  for  all  such  kinds  of 
amusements,  passed  up  and  down  the  streets  all  day,  seemingly 
looking  out  for  a  scanty  supply  of  grass,  which  grew  outside  the 
gardens  and  wTalls  of  the  houses,  or  on  coral  blocks  and  heaped- 
up  lumber  ;  but,  in  fact,  the  sly  old  rascal  was  only  watching 
the  bill-poster,  whom  he  followed  through  the  whole  place,  at  a 
respectful  and  perfectly  well-calculated  distance;  and  as  soon  as 
the  man  had  turned,  with  his  arm  full  of  fresh-printed  sheets  and 
paste-pot,  round  the  next  corner,  the  goat  looked  carefully  up 


HONOLULU.  275 

and  down  the  street,  as  it  had  a  natural  abhorrence  of  police- 
officers,  and  seeing  none  of  these,  walked  deliberately  up  to  the 
bill,  got  up  on  its  hind-legs,  caught  hold  of  the  first  corner  it  could 
reach,  and  pulled  down  the  whole,  or  tore  off  as  much  as  it  could 
get.  The  animal  was  perfectly  mad  after  these  bills,  and  I  really 
believe  could  have  fed  entirely  upon  waste-paper. 

In  company  with  a  German  gentleman,  a  Dr.  Petri,  with  whom 
I  became  acquainted  at  Honolulu,  I  rode  one  afternoon  to  visit 
the  so-called  pali  or  pari,  a  high  rock,  and,  in  fact,  the  dividing 
ridge  which  cuts  the  northern  and  southern  half  of  the  island  in 
two. 

Getting  a  couple  of  tolerably  good  and  lively  ponies,  we  gal- 
loped along  the  main  street,  up  toward  the  mountains,  and,  I  must 
confess,  I  had  not  spent  for  a  long,  very  long  while,  such  an  after- 
noon as  this.  The  valley  of  Nuanu  is,  in  fact,  the  garden  of 
Honolulu,  displaying  every  variety  of  fruits  and  vegetables;  these 
consist  of  grapes,  bananas,  taro,  yams,  cocoa-nuts,  sugar-canes, 
pine-apples,  melons,  potatoes,  and  other  kinds  of  vegetables,  and 
in  former  times  the  market  was  supplied  with  plenty  of  them  at 
a  reasonable  price.  But  now  the  greater  part  of  this  produce  is 
shipped  to  California,  or  offered  at  such  a  price  in  Honolulu,  as 
if  the  little  creek  of  the  valley  of  Nuanu  was  just  as  rich  in  gold 
as  that  of  the  Sacramento  and  San  Joaquin. 

After  leaving  the  town,  we  kept  for  a  long  while  in  a  straight 
and  regularly-planted  avenue  of  a  kind  of  linden-tree ;  the  leaves, 
at  least,  looked  very  much  like  those  of  the  linden,  but  larger, 
and  the  tree  bore  a  quantity  of  partly  red,  partly  white  blossoms. 
Kui-kui-trees  were  planted  between  these,  bearing  the  oil  or  kui- 
kui-nut,  which  the  natives  use  for  burning.  In  former  times,  they 
also  employed  the  smoke  of  this  nut  in  their  tattooing,  to  give 
the  drawing  on  the  skin  a  lively  blue  color. 

Water  was  every  where  led  through  the  gardens  and  fields  in 
the  neighborhood,  for  the  principal  food  of  the  natives  consists 
of  the  taro  or  kalo  root,  which  grows  only  in  water-patches,  form- 
ing little  ponds,  out  of  which  the  broad,  juicy  leaves  of  the  plant 
grow  up  to  a  height  of  three  or  four  feet.  These  ponds  glistened, 
like  mirrors,  in  the  fresh  green  of  dark-leaved  orange  or  citron- 
trees,  or  whispering  bananas ;  and  still  further  on,  we  could  see 
the  broad  feathery  leaves  of  the  cocoa-palms  waving  their  splen- 
did crowns  over  fields  of  sugar-cane,  or  groves  of  fruit-trees, 


276  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

On  we  passed,  through  the  beautiful  and  fertile  valley,  toward 
the  open  ground ;  here  and  there  the  white  and  friendly  cottage 
of  some  European  lay  hid  beneath  shady  groves  ;  and  wildly 
scattered  around,  but  each  provided  with  a  small  garden,  or  at 
least  a  taro  patch,  planted  round  with  kui-kui-trees  and  bananas, 
stood  the  low  and  gloomy  huts  of  the  natives. 

The  farther  we  left  the  town  behind,  the  steeper  the  road 
wound  toward  the  mountain;  and  to  our  right  we  heard  the 
murmuring  noise  of  a  waterfall.  The  doctor,  though  only  a  short 
time  on  the  island,  seemed  very  well  acquainted  with  this  neigh- 
borhood. Hiding  up  toward  a  small  gate,  a  boy  of  about  eight 
or  nine  years  ran  out  to  us,  and  a  couple  of  young  girls,  with  an 
old  kanaka  following  them,  appeared  from  the  nearest  house,  to 
hold  our  horses. 

To  our  right,  only  a  few  yards  from  the  hut,  the  path  led  up 
the  steep  slope  of  a  narrow  valley,  over  which  we  obtained  an 
open  and  beautiful  prospect  of  a  small  but  rapid  cascade.  The 
clear  and  wild  mountain-stream,  in  its  freshness  and  purity,  rush- 
ing from  its  rocky  home,  and  stealing  away  beneath  the  shady 
and  waving  bushes,  leaped  in  mad  sport  over  the  jagged  rocks 
in  the  valley,  and  rested  awhile  in  an  open  and  free  basin,  as  if 
half-astonished  at  seeing  the  world  around  so  fair  and  sunny ; 
and  then,  like  a  civilized  Indian,  who  had  at  once  become  a  good 
Christian  and  citizen,  resigning  its  free  and  happy  life,  glided 
slowly  and  soberly  down  into  the  cultivated  plain.  In  those  few 
moments  it  had  become  quite  another  being ;  its  past  life  was 
gone,  never  to  return ;  its  free-will  taken  from  it ;  it  could  no 
longer  bound  through  the  shady  groves  of  its  wild  forests,  caress- 
ing the  sweet  and  gracefully-bending  flowers,  or  searching  be- 
neath the  gnarled  and  water-worn  roots  for  a  glistening  pebble, 
with  which  to  toy,  and  bear  it  along  on  its  smooth  and  careless 
course.  Those  times  were  passed,  and  it  would  now  be  taught 
the  blessings  which  civilization  could  confer  upon  it.  Now  it  has 
to  fill  the  taro  ponds  of  its  disinterested  teachers,  water  their  gar- 
dens, drive  their  mills  and  engines,  and  be  employed  besides  for 
the  lavatory  purposes  of  town  and  neighborhood,  till  it  loses  it- 
self—really perfectly  civilized,  and  with  no  sign  left  of  its  former 
wild  and  reckless  life — a  slow  and  muddy  drain,  in  the  ocean. 
Poor,  poor  streamlet ! 

Having  a  good  distance  to  ride  yet,  we  could  not  stop  very 


HONOLULU.  277 

long  ;  therefore  mounting  our  horses  again,  we  galloped  up  the 
hill.  But,  while  the  road  became  worse  and  worse,  and  some- 
times wet  and  swampy  places  nearly  stopped  our  progress,  and 
made  the  horses  sink  up  to  their  knees  in  the  mud,  we  found 
company.  A  little  dark-skinned  boy  and  girl  respectively  of  about 
six  and  eleven  years  of  age,  bounded  wildly  toward  us,  and  tried 
to  keep  pace  with  our  horses,  not  caring  more  for  mud  or  rocks 
than  if  they  had  been  soft  moss  or  silky  carpets.  The  girl  espe- 
cially, in  spite  of  her  longer  dress,  which  she  held  up,  however, 
over  her  knees,  kept  always  ten  or  fifteen  paces  ahead  ;  and  the 
boy,  to  save  himself  unnecessary  exertion,  caught  hold  at  last  of 
the  horse's  tail,  and  when  once  secure,  did  not  seem  to  care  how 
fast  we  went.  The  doctor  told  me  the  little  fellows — for  we  heard 
a  couple  more  boys  coming  after  us — ran  along  with  us,  only  to 
get  a  chance  of  holding  our  horses  on  the  top  of  the  pali,  and 
earn  a  real. 

We  were  in  the  mean  time  approaching  the  upper  part  of  the 
ravine,  and  the  formation  of  the  two  peaks  left  hardly  any  doubt 
that  the  rocks  had  been  torn  asunder  in  former  times  by  some 
powerful  volcanic  eruption,  the  two  parts  bearing  a  close  and 
striking  resemblance  to  each  other,  and  seemingly  corresponding 
exactly  in  their  hollows  and  elevations.  The  northeast  trade- 
winds  were  blowing  here  with  goodwill  through  the  low  bushes 
and  wild  plantains  which  covered  the  whole  valley,  and  far  away 
on  the  other  side  of  the  mountains  we  could  plainly  hear  the 
roaring  of  the  breakers  over  the  coral-reefs.  A  little  distance  fur- 
ther up,  I  had  to  grasp  my  reins  suddenly,  and  my  hat  as  well, 
for  the  ground  fell  away  right  before  me ;  and  many  hundred 
yards  below  me — under  my  feet — lay  extended  the  northern  half 
of  Oahu.  Still,  even  if  my  sight  had  failed  me,  the  wind  would 
have  prevented  my  incurring  any  danger,  or  at  least  have  warn- 
ed me  of  it.  On  reaching  the  highest  part  of  the  pali,  the  trade- 
wind  blew  with  such  violence  that  my  horse  could  hardly  bear 
up  against  it.  We  got  off,  and  left  the  bridles  to  the  young  folks 
who  had  accompanied  us  ;  and  after  I  had  put  my  hat  in  my 
pocket,  for  there  was  no  chance  of  keeping  it  on  my  head,  I  threw 
myself  on  the  grass,  and  gave  myself  up  entirely  to  the  enjoy- 
ment of  the  glorious  panorama. 

The  valley  before  me,  which  seemed  to  have  been  partly  torn 
away  by  the  raging  waves  that  stormed  against  the  coast  with 


278  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

all  their  wonted  fury  and  power,  formed  a  wide  green  hollow, 
though  at  too  great  a  depth  for  me  to  recognize  what  grew  in  it ; 
vegetation  extended  up  to  the  steep  and  naked  cliffs  that  sur- 
rounded it,  and  here  and  there  the  yellow  of  the  native  huts 
peeped  out  from  the  dark  mass  of  foliage.  The  breakers,  hurling 
themselves  against  the  coral-reefs  in  ceaseless  rage,  and  aided  by 
the  high  and  steady  northeaster,  even  burst  over  the  barrier,  and 
rolled  toward  the  shore,  disturbing  the  smooth  surface  of  the 
inner  channel ;  but  before  they  reached  the  strand  their  force  was 
spent,  and  the  small  white  beach  prevented  their  further  progress. 

A  glorious  picture  was  formed  by  the  verdure  of  the  valleys, 
the  white  foam  of  the  breakers,  and  the  transparent  azure  of  the 
quiet  and  majestic  ocean,  only  broken  at  intervals  by  some  white 
and  glistening  sail.  The  blue  sky  stretched  over  the  sea,  and 
the  white  and  soaring  boatsman,  with  its  long  and  sharp  pinions, 
seemed  to  rest  on  its  wings,  as  it  approached  us,  and  to  seek  to 
lure  the  strangers  from  its  sanctuary. 

Loud  talking  and  laughing  at  my  back  reminded  me  that  I  was 
not  alone  on  the  rock.  Hardly  ten  yards  off,  and  on  the  very 
verge  of  the  precipice,  a  motley  group  of  kanakas,  men  and 
women,  lay  scattered  about  on  the  sward,  hoping  to  earn  a  few 
reals  from  the  strangers  who  come  up  here  to  the  precipice,  by 
holding  their  horses.  A  couple  of  Americans  galloped  at  the 
same  time  up  the  hill ;  they  belonged  to  the  lowest  class,  and 
one  of  them,  already  tipsy,  had  hardly  reached  the  summit  when 
he  seemed  to  have  a  great  notion  of  galloping  down  on  the  other 
side.  There  was,  in  fact,  a  small  path  leading  down  from  the 
height,  but  certainly  a  most  dangerous  one  for  a  man  in  such  a 
state,  and  his  companion  persuaded  him  at  last  to  leave  it  alone. 
By  way  of  recompense,  the  old  fellow  pulled  out  a  little  flat  bot- 
tle he  carried  in  the  pocket  of  his  pea-jacket  and  took  a  long  pull 
at  it,  then  wiped  his  mouth,  put  the  bottle  back,  and  asked  the 
doctor,  whom  he  had  never  seen  or  spoken  to  before,  for  a  cigar, 
offering  to  pay  him  for  it  with  the  greatest  pleasure,  if  he  would 
call  at  the  "  Old  Miner,"  alow  grog-shop  in  the  upper  part  of  the 
town.  A  couple  of  girls,  also  on  horseback,  had  followed  these 
men ;  and  they  all  four  got  down  from  their  horses,  while  the 
Old  Miner — and  he  looked  exactly  as  if  he  had  just  come  from 
the  diggings — divided  his  attention  most  scrupulously  between 
his  bottle  and  his  lady 


HONOLULU.  279 

This  precipice  possesses  historical  importance,  for  up  to  this 
place  Kamehameha  I.,  also  called  the  Conqueror,  drove  his 
enemies,  after  he  had  triumphed  over  the  hostile  army  in  all  the 
other  islands — Oahu  being  the  last  he  subjugated  ;  and  those  not 
killed  by  club  and  spear,  were  thrown  down  from  the  giddy  height. 
Kamehameha  became  from  that  day  sole  regent  of  the  whole 
Hawaiian  archipelago. 

That  we  might  not  reach  the  town  at  a  late  hour,  we  mounted 
our  horses  again,  but  found  more  company  in  going  down  than  in 
coming  up.  It  became  late,  and  the  kanakas,  not  expecting  any 
more  visits  on  the  heights,  determined,  as  it  seemed,  on  returning 
with  us,  and  collected  around  our  horses.  The  doctor's  pony  re- 
jected, from  the  outset,  any  sign  of  familiarity  from  the  kanakas; 
but  mine,  on  the  contrary,  seemed  to  be  on  the  best  terms  with 
all  of  them,  and  I  had  hardly  put  my  feet  in  the  stirrups,  when 
a  young  girl  jumped  with  one  bound  behind  me  on  the  horse, 
three  others  and  a  boy  caught  hold  of  the  horse's  tail,  the  small- 
est one  struck  it  a  blow  with  a  thin  switch,  and  away  we  went 
down  the  hill,  as  fast  as  the  snorting  animal  could  carry  and 
drag  us  ;  while  the  little  crowd — sometimes  half-flying  in  the 
air — were  actually  screaming  with  pure  delight,  but  never  thought 
of  letting  go,  till  we  arrived  half-way  to  town,  where  their  huts 
were  standing,  I  expect,  and  where  they  left  us,  diving  suddenly 
into  the  nearest  bushes,  and  there  disappearing. 

California  has  given  the  death-blow  to  the  simple  life  of  the 
natives.  The  missionaries  first  came  to  acquaint  them  with  the 
whole  power  of  civilized  life,  but  new  objects  at  that  time  fol- 
lowed one  another  in  such  rapid  succession,  that  they  had  not 
time  to  breathe.  They  were  not  able  to  comprehend  even  what 
was  given  to  them,  or  the  consequences  of  such  steps.  As  a  man 
who  has  received  a  stunning  blow  is  insensible  to  any  farther 
injury,  the  Indians,  after  seeing  the  first  large  vessels  and  white 
men,  took  the  next  easily  enough,  and  seemed  to  recover,  after  a 
very  long  while,  to  quite  a  different  life  from  that  which  they 
had  ever  led  before.  But  hardly  had  they  reached  something 
like  order  in  their  government,  religion,  life,  and  ingitutions — all 
of  which  were  upset  and  changed  in  the  course  of  but  a  few  years 
— when  the  riches  of  California  were  discovered,  and  the  Sand- 
wich Islanders,  as  the  nearest  neighbors,  got  a  full  share  of  all 
the  miraculous  changes.  As  I  mentioned  before,  billiard-tables 


280  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

and  bowling-alleys  took  the  lead,  then  came  a  theatre  ;  and 
before  they  had  time  to  recover,  Herr  Rossiter  appeared,  who 
danced  on  a  wire-rope,  swallowed  whole  oranges  and  swords, 
beheaded  pigeons  and  brought  them  to  life  again,  and  hardly 
completed  his  performances,  when  the  American  circus  arrived, 
and  seemed  to  overturn  the  whole  island.  The  natives  were 
threatened  at  the  time  with  a  live  barrel-organ  man,  and  I 
really  do  not  know  what  would  have  been  the  consequence  of 
that. 

But  as  it  was,  all  their  former  quiet  and  simple  habits  were 
disturbed,  their  gods  driven  from  their  shores,  or  out  of  the  very 
bowels  of  their  islands ;  and  if  Kameharneha  I.  had  conquered 
the  whole  group,  with  the  war-club  in  his  hand,  and  the  battle 
cry  on  his  lips,  Kamehameha  III.,  for  his  part,  was  entirely  con- 
quered by  the  spirit — partly  that  of  religion  through  the  mission- 
aries, and  partly  that  of  cognac  through  the  French — but  con- 
quered he  was  ;  and  while  a  severe  law  prohibited  the  sale  of 
single  glasses  of  spirituous  liquors  in  the  islands,  he  took  it  by 
the  bottle  full,  so  that  he  was  not  fit  to  be  seen  during  my  whole 
stay  in  Oahu,  and  afterward,  as  I  heard,  had  a  severe  attack  of 
delirium  tremens. 

Kamehameha  (the  king  of  kings)  has  become  an  insignificant 
title  ;  missionaries  have  ruled  the  country  for  many  years,  and 
Californian  gold  rules  it  now ;  and  in  spite  of  the  ministers  of 
state,  who  talk  in  their  ordinances  rather  proudly  of  "  his  majesty 
the  king,  the  premier,  and  the  nobles,"  an  actual  kingdom  of  the 
Sandwich  Islands  only  exists  in  name.  Kamehameha  III.  does 
his  best  to  kill  himself  with  strong  drinks,  and  I  really  believe  a 
great  part  of  the  cause  lies  in  the  restless  talk  and  tedious  warn- 
ing of  the  missionaries,  in  opposition  to  the  old  chieftain's  pride 
of  the  Indian.  What  I  heard  of  the  king  in  Honolulu  was  all  in 
his  favor ;  he  is,  if  left  to  himself,  a  kind,  friendly  man,  only,  of 
course,  distrustful  toward  strangers — and  he  has  just  cause  for  it. 
In  spite  of  his  drinking,  he  is  strong  and  active  yet,  being  an  ex- 
cellent horseman,  and  a  very  good  hand  in  the  noble  art  of  self- 
defense,  possessing  at  the  same  time  most  extraordinary  strength 
of  muscles. 

The  climate  of  the  islands  is,  I  really  believe,  the  most  salubri- 
ous in  the  world,  and  diseases  are  hardly  known,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  those  introduced  by  intercourse  with  foreigners.  The  soil 


HONOLULU.  281 

is  fertile,  and  though  within  the  Tropics,  the  islands  seem  to 
produce  the  southern  plants  and  vegetables  in  great  perfection, 
yielding  at  the  same  time  rich  crops  of  sugar,  cofTee,  and  yams. 

The  main  produce  of  the  island  is  the  taro-root  and  potato  ; 
besides  this  the  sweet  potato,  yam,  sugar-cane,  coffee,  tobacco, 
bananas  or  plantains,  figs  and  grapes,  cocoa-nuts  and  oranges. 

The  natives  like  to  cultivate  cawa  or  awa-root  for  their  own 
use,  from  which  they  know  how  to  prepare  intoxicating  drinks, 
the  use  of  which  is  prohibited  by  a  law  passed  through  the  exer- 
tions of  the  missionaries ;  but  the  Governor  gives  at  times  a  per- 
mission-ticket, in  exceptional  (jases,  by  way  of  a  letter  of  indul- 
gence. 

I  have  not  the  least  doubt  that  the  missionaries  were  perfectly 
right  in  suppressing  the  use  of  this  noxious  root  as  much  as  pos- 
sible ;  but  it  seems  a  fatality  that  all  teachers  of  religion,  whether 
Christians,  Mohammedans,  or  Buddhists,  are  too  prone  to  exceed 
their  power,  and  if  they  get  an  inch,  try  to  gain  an  ell.  Thus 
the  missionaries  in  the  Sandwich  Islands  did  a  good  deed  by 
stopping  the  use  of  the  cawa-root,  and  preventing  as  far  as  they 
could  the  use  and  sale  of  spirituous  liquors  among  the  natives ; 
but,  not  satisfied  with  this,  they  forbade  the  planting  of  vineyards, 
and  thus  robbed  the  country  of  a  produce  hardly  any  land  in  the 
world  could  excel.  But  Americans  are  now  settling  fast  on  the 
islands,  and  the  power  of  the  missionaries  will  soon  be  broken. 

The  taro  or  palo  (for  the  kanakas  most  singularly  seem  not  to 
make  the  least  difference  in  the  sounds  of  the  t  and  p  and  the  r 
and  /.)  is  a  bulbous  root  from  twelve  to  fifteen  inches  in  circum- 
ference, of  an  oval  shape,  having  usually  a  purple  tint,  and  puts 
forth  several  stalks  terminating  in  a  broad  arrow-headed  leaf. 
When  raw,  its  juices  are  extremely  acrid  and  pungent,  but  when 
cooked  it  is  of  a  highly  nutritious  character,  like  that  of  the  finest 
potato.  At  the  same  time  that  it  yields  so  much  nutriment,  it 
is  so  easily  raised  that  it  only  requires  a  perfectly  wet  patch  of 
ground  for  its  cultivation,  and  a  single  acre  planted  with  this  root, 
arid  surrounded  on  the  dry  borders  with  cocoa-nuts  and  bananas, 
would  be  sufficient  to  give  plenty  of  nourishment  to  a  large 
family  through  the  whole  year. 

The  taro-root  when  freshly  planted,  requires  one  year  to  grow 
fit  for  use,  but  from  that  time  it  bears  constantly  throughout  the 
year. 


282  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

The  Irish  potato  grows  also  most  excellently  on  these  islands, 
and  has  been  up  to  the  last  year,  the  main  and  most  important 
article  of  export  from  them.  The  planters  have  very  little  labor 
with  it,  and  gather  two  crops  every  year.  Old  farmers  assured 
me  that  they  had  only  to  prepare  the  ground,  and  plant  the  po- 
tatoes in  the  common  way  first,  when  they  commenced  cultivat- 
ing it,  and  after  each  crop  potatoes  enough  remained  in  the  ground 
to  secure  another  equally  rich  yield. 

The  sweet  potato  is  also  raised  ;  but  ships,  and  principally 
whalers,  prefer  taking  the  Irish  potato,  since  the  former  hardly 
ever  keeps  six  weeks.  Potatoes. were  at  this  time  exceedingly 
dear,  the  barrel,  containing  about  two  bushels,  costing  from 
three  and  a  half  to  six  dollars,  but  last  year  has  changed  those 
prices  materially,  California  having  grown  a  great  quantity  of 
potatoes  and  other  vegetables ;  and  those  persons  on  the  islands 
who  had  expected  to  make  a  fortune  with  their  potatoes  that 
year,  only  earned  tolerably  good  wages. 

The  sugar-cane  was,  after  the  potato,  the  most  important  ar- 
ticle ;  but  of  late  the  prices  of  sugar  have  fallen  so  immensely,  as 
not  to  offer  any  longer  an  inducement  to  planters  to  commence 
new  plantations,  particularly  as  they  are  not  allowed  to  use  their 
refuse  in  making  rum.  But  the  price  of  sugar  will  rise  again, 
and  there  will  only  be  the  question,  whether  the  planters  of  these 
islands  will  be  able  to  compete  with  the  slaveholders  of  other 
countries  in  the  price  of  their  produce,  for  the  Indians  can  not  be 
depended  upon  as  laborers,  though  the  soil  will  always  yield  a 
very  rich  crop  of  the  cane, 

Growing  the  cane  does  not  require  either  extraordinary  labor 
or  time.  It  is  planted  in  long  rows,  and  must  be  left  to  grow 
from  that  period  for  eighteen  months,  so  as  to  have  acquired  in 
or  about  the  "  tassel-time"  its  full  maturity  and  the  most  juice 
The  young  shoots  come  up  anew,  after  the  cane  is  cut,  and  as 
they  already  have  a  fully  grown  root,  they  require  no  further 
culture,  being  perfectly  fit  for  cutting  by  the  next  November, 
about  eleven  months  later.  The  sugar-cane  only  requires  re- 
planting in  the  fourth  year. 

An  acre,  planted  in  the  proper  way  with  sugar-cane,  produces 
a  great  quantity  of  sugar,  each  crop  averaging  two  thousand 
pounds,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  gallons  of  molasses. 

Here  and  there  some  enterprising  settlers  have  built  sugar- 


HONOLULU.  283 

houses,  where  they  boil  out  half  the  given  quantity  of  sugar  and 
molasses. 

At  the  time  I  visited  these  islands,  sugar  was  worth  six  and 
a  half  cents  per  pound,  and  a  gallon  of  molasses  thirty  cents ; 
sugar  planters  therefore  made  a  large  profit,  but  not  long  ago 
sugar  came  down  to  two  and  a  half  and  three  cents,  and  it  de- 
pends entirely  on  the  Manilla  market,  as  well  as  on  the  quantity 
imported  into  California,  how  much  the  price  of  this  article  will 
again  rise. 

Coffee  and  tobacco  could  also  be  raised  on  the  islands  with 
great  success,  if  they  did  not  require  too  many  hands,  a  very 
scarce  and  dear  article  at  the  present  time.  But  even  the  coffee- 
plant  and  sugar-cane,  as  the  materials  from  which  intoxicating 
drinks  (poor  coffee  !)  were  brewed,  had  to  suffer  from  the  fanatic 
rage  of  some  of  the  brethren,  who  induced  the  young  king  in  a 
holy  zeal  to  cut  down  the  "  dangerous  plants  ;"  but  now  their 
culture,  though  not  that  of  the  vine,  is  allowed. 

The  land  itself  belongs  at  present  to  the  king,'  and  part  of  it  to  his 
chiefs,  even  in  the  more  remote  islands,  and  valuable  ground  could 
be  hardly  bought  any  where  under  ten  dollars  per  acre,  though 
bearing  a  much  higher  price  of  course  in  the  neighborhood  of  any 
harbor  or  town,  particularly  on  Oahu.  But  workmen  are  needed 
very  badly,  and  the  poor  man,  who  remained  without  a  cent  in 
his  pocket  on  these  shores,  but  was  willing  to  work  and  earn  his 
bread,  might  depend  upon  finding  plenty  here  glad  to  employ 
him,  giving  him  sustenance  and  satisfactory  wages.  But  the 
farmers  and  settlers  especially  want  families — single  men  are  not 
steady  enough,  and  California  is  so  near  that  they  are  apt  to 
make  this  only  a  kind  of  resting-place.  How  much  they  need 
laborers  on  these  islands,  may  be  proved  by  the  fact  that  the 
agricultural  society  of  Honolulu  recently  sent  a  vessel  to  China 
for  the  sole  purpose  of  bringing  over  a  certain  number  of  work- 
men from  that  country,  since  they  can  do  very  little  or  nothing 
with  the  Indians. 

On  the  larger  islands  there  is  a  great  quantity  of  cattle  run- 
ning wild  in  the  mountains,  but  they  all  belong  to  the  king,  who 
has  his  own  people,  mostly  South  Americans,  to  watch  or  kill 
them  whenever  they  are  wanted.  Raising  cattle  would  be  a 
very  good  business,  especially  in  the  neighborhood  of  Honolulu, 
since  butter  and  milk  are  at  a  most  enormous  price,  but  proven- 


284  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

der  is  very  difficult  to  obtain,  and  costs  a  great  deal  of  money, 
as  no  person  has  a  right  to  let  his  cattle  feed  any  where  but  on 
his  own  property.  Grass  is  also  very  dear,  and  cattle  fetch  even 
in  Hawaii  and  the  other  islands  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  dol- 
lars a  piece,  milch  cows  of  course  much  more.  Fresh  meat  at 
this  time  cost  in  Honolulu  nine  cents  per  pound. 

Besides  cattle,  they  have  pigs,  goats,  and  poultry  on  the  islands  ; 
also,  as  I  was  told,  wild  turkeys. 

At  the  time  I  was  stopping  in  Honolulu,  Mr.  Damon,  the  chap- 
lain of  the  Seaman's  Chapel,  collected  a  sum  of  money  for  some 
men,  in  whom  the  Americans  principally  felt  much  interested. 
They  were  Japanese,  who  were  trying  to  get  back  to  their 
country,  and  an  advertisement  in  the  "  Polynesian"  requested 
public  aid  for  this  purpose. 

Some  time  ago,  a  short  article  also  appeared  in  the  "  Friend," 
a  paper  edited  by  Mr.  Damon  himself,  narrating  the  history  of 
the  Japanese  shipwrecked  sailors,  which  may  interest  the  En- 
glish public  also,  as  in  the  present  day  our  civilized  nations  seem 
determined  upon  breaking  in  upon  the  peace  of  a  foreign  people, 
whether  they  like  it  or  not. 

"  November  1,  1850. — Several  shipwrecked  Japanese,  being  in 
Honolulu,  we  requested  one  of  them,  who  has  acquired  an  excel- 
lent knowledge  of  our  language,  to  pay  us  a  visit,  accompanied 
by  one  of  his  countrymen,  lately  brought  hither.  We  shall  first 
introduce  our  readers  to  the  interpreter  John  Mung.  This  per- 
son, with  four  others,  was  taken,  ten  years  ago,  from  a  desolate 
and  uninhabited  island,  where  they  had  been  cast,  and  where 
they  had  lived  for  one  hundred  and  eighty  days  on  sea-fowls. 
They  were  brought  to  Honolulu  by  Captain  W.  H.  Whitfield, 
of  Fair  Haven,  who  then  commanded  a  whale-ship  in  the  Pacific. 
Four  of  the  number  remained  here,  one  having  died.  John  Mung 
was  taken  by  Captain  W.  to  the  United  States,  where  he  learn- 
ed the  cooper's  trade,  and  enjoyed  a  good  opportunity  for  going 
to  school.  His  education  is  highly  respectable.  He  has  been 
one  whaling  voyage,  and  then,  with  the  multitude,  went  to  Cali- 
fornia. There  not  succeeding  as  he  expected,  he  came  to  the 
islands,  indulging  the  long-cherished  hope  that  he  might  obtain 
a  passage  to  his  native  shores.  It  is  his  ambition  to  command  a 
junk  and  navigate  her,  with  compass  and  quadrant,  and  show 
his  Japanese  countrymen  that  the  "  out-side  barbarians"  under- 


HONOLULU.  285 

stand  navigation,  which  science  he  has  acquired  sufficient  for  all 
practicable  purposes. 

"  On  Mr.  Mung's  arrival  in  Honolulu,  he  learned  that  there 
was  a  fresh  arrival  of  his  shipwrecked  countrymen,  and  for 
whom  he  is  prepared  to  act  as  interpreter.  By  his  aid  we  learn- 
ed the  following  facts  respecting  the  Japanese,  taken  from  a  junk 
by  Captain  Clark,  of  the  'Henry  Kneeland,'  on  the  22d  of  April. 

"  '  Teenzumolly'  was  the  name  of  the  junk,  commanded  by 
Captain  Kusky,  with  Mr.  Kekuzro  for  mate.  The  '  Teenzu- 
molly' (if  Mr.  Damon  had  not  a  Rev.  before  his  name,  I  should 
suspect  that  Teenzumolly  was  not  quite  original),  was  owned 
by  a  soldier  or  nobleman,  in  a  town  situated  on  the  S.E.  side  of 
a  small  island,  S.W.  from  Niphon.  The  town  is  twice  the  size 
of  Honolulu ;  the  people  are  farmers  and  fishermen ;  only  two 
junks  were  owned  there,  but  plenty  of  fishing-boats.  Hice  is 
the  principal  produce,  besides  all  kinds  of  vegetables.  Both 
junks  were  owned  by  a  gentleman  of  the  name  of  Soumung. 
The  '  Teenzumolly'  had  taken  a  cargo  of  rice  to  Jeddo,  discharged 
the  same,  received  payment,  partly  in  silver  and  partly  in  paper- 
money  (we  have  seen  specimens  of  both — as  for  the  paper  money, 
it  appears  as  good  as  any  we  ever  saw),  and  started  on  her  home- 
ward passage,  ordinarily  occupying  three  days,  but  was  overtaken 
by  adverse  winds.  Their  supply  of  water  was  exhausted  at  the 
end  of  sixteen  days,  and  their  rice  at  the  end  of  twenty-six. 
They  were  then  reduced  to  some  refuse  fish-scales  and  occasional 
showers,  till  they  fell  in,  at  the  end  of  sixty-six  days,  their  junk 
rudderless  and  dismasted,  with  the  '  Henry  Kneeland,'  Captain 
Clark,  who  took  them  all  on  board  his  vessel,  and  supplied  their 
wants.  Subsequently,  Captain  Clark  delivered  six  of  them  to 
the  Russian  authorities  at  Petropaulaski,  under  the  promise  that 
they  should  be  returned  to  Japan.  Two  were  taken  by  Captain 
Sherman,  of  the  '  Nimrod,'  and  two  by  Captain  Divole,  of  the 
'  Marengo.' 

"  There  is  an  impression  abroad,  that  Japanese,  if  taken  back 
to  their  country,  will  be  put  to  death.  We  are  positively  assured 
by  Mr.  Kekuzro,  through  the  interpreter,  Mr.  Mung,  that  this  is 
not  the  fact.  He  asserts  that,  should  any  vessel  take  them  back 
to  their  native  village,  the  inhabitants  would  rejoice  to  hail  the 
vessel,  and  would  put  on  board  a  supply  of  fresh  provisions  with- 
out charge." 


286  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

So  far  the  article  ;  but  Mr.  Kekuzro  has  had,  as  it  seems,  some 
extravagant  ideas  about  returning,  or  some  other  cause  for  giving 
Mr.  Damon  such  an  account. 

Some  time  afterward,  Captain  Whitmore,  who  intended  to 
pass  the  Japanese  islands,  offered  to  take  these  men  and  a  whale- 
boat  with  him,  till  he  got  in  sight  of  the  Japan  coast,  and  then 
leave  them  to  their  fate,  for  it  seems  Mr.  Kekuzro  did  not  seem 
to  depend  much  on  being  received  in  such  a  very  friendly  man- 
ner by  his  countrymen,  if  a  foreigner  introduced  him  again  to 
his  home.  The  advertisement  in  the  "  Polynesian,"  headed 
"  Expedition  to  Japan,"  stated  shortly  that  three  wrecked  Japan- 
ese, who  were  brought  hither  by  Captain  W.  H.  Whitfield  in 
1841,  intended  to  return  to  Japan.  He  had  purchased  a  good 
whale-boat  and  outfit,  Captain  Whitmore  of  the  American  ship, 
"  Sarah  Boyd,"  having  kindly  offered  to  leave  them  somewhere 
off  the  Loo-Choo  Islands,  and  thence  they  hoped  to  make  their 
way  to  Japan.  To  complete  the  outfit,  they  wanted  a  compass, 
a  good  fowling-piece,  a  few  articles  of  clothing,  shoes,  and  a 
nautical  almanac  for  1850. 

This  seemed  all  right  enough,  except  the  almanac  for  1850, 
the  advertisement  not  appearing  till  the  14th  of  December  1850, 
and  it  was  rather  late  to  reach  Japan  in  the  same  year ;  but  the 
vessel  started  and  took  the  Japanese  with  her,  but  the  result 
was  not  so  favorable  as  the  poor  fellows  seemed  to  have  antici- 
pated. 

Accidentally  I  fell  in  at  Batavia  two  years  later,  with  a  gen- 
tleman who  had  just  returned  from  Japan,  with  the  only  vessel 
which  the  Dutch — the  privileged  of  all  nations  except  the  Chinese 
— are  allowed  to  send  annually  to  Japan,  and  who  could  give  me 
some  information  about  these  men  who  had  dared  all  the  dan- 
gers they  very  well  knew  beforehand,  to  see  their  homes  and 
families  again.  The  account  he  gave  me  was  as  follows  : 

"  A  year  ago,  or  better,  a  whale-boat  with  three  men,  pro- 
vided with  every  thing  necessary  for  navigation,  but  only  with 
a  very  small  quantity  of  provisions,  had  reached  the  Japan  coast, 
where  the  Japanese  government  immediately  took  possession  of 
it.  One  of  the  men  spoke  the  language  very  well,  another 
decently,  and  the  third  indifferently.  They  had  some  money 
with  them,  some  gold  and  silver,  and  related  that  they  had  been 
wrecked  several  years  before,  on  a  certain  part  of  the  coast,  and 


HONOLULU.  287 

saved  by  an  American  vessel  which  took  them  with  her  to 
America.  But  there  they  became  home-sick,  and  determined  at 
last,  on  risking  every  thing,  only  to  see  their  birth-place  again : 
they  had  therefore  fitted  out  this  whale-boat,  and  came  with  it 
all  the  way  from  America,  throwing  themselves  at  the  feet  and 
mercy  of  the  Emperor  of  Japan." 

The  story  would  have  passed  very  well,  perhaps,  but  for  that 
one  fact,  that  they  had  come  in  an  open  boat  all  the  way  from 
America.  The  Japanese  have  more  knowledge  of  the  outer 
world  than  many  think  ;  they  possess  geographical  maps  and 
charts,  and  books,  and  are  not  so  easily  led  astray.  At  the  same 
time,  they  sent  messengers  to  the  different  parts  of  the  coast, 
where  the  men  stated  they  had  been  wrecked,  to  inquire  the 
particulars  about  the  persons  and  the  accident  as  far  as  possible. 
If  these  accounts  were  found  to  be  false,  Japanese  officers  them- 
selves declared  that  they  would  have  to  expect  nothing  else  but 
instant  death  ;  but  even  under  the  most  favorable  circumstances, 
imprisonment  for  life,  though  perhaps  of  a  mild  nature,  awaited 
them.  The  unhappy  men  had  come  in  contact  with  foreigners, 
and  would  never  converse  again  with  their  friends  or  relations. 

Kekuzro  was  so  far  right.  A  Japanese  who  can  prove  he 
was  shipwrecked  and  taken  aboard  a  foreign  vessel,  would  not 
be  condemned  to  death,  but  he  would  be  kept  in  an  eternal 
prison,  and  become,  if  not  really,  at  least  nominally,  a  dead  man. 
The  laws  are  so  severe  and  merciless  among  this  race  that  if  a 
fisherman  were  known  to  have  boarded  a  foreign  vessel  at  sea, 
he  would  most  certainly  suffer  death ;  and  those  poor  fellows 
who  had  been  picked  up  outside  with  their  boats  by  European 
or  American  vessels,  always  begged  the  captains,  as  I  arn  told, 
to  break  their  boat,  so  that  they  might  have  a  certain  proof  that 
there  was  no  chance  for  them  to  save  their  lives  but  by  asking 
help  from  the  foreigners. 


CHAPTER  III. 

A    WHALING    CRUISE 

IT  had  not  been  my  intention  originally  to  visit  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  though  I  was  not  at  all  sorry  at  having  the  opportunity ; 
but  my  wishes  always  lay  farther  south,  and  I  longed  to  see  some 
of  those  wild  islands,  civilization  had  not  yet  quite  spoiled.  But 
how  to  get  there  ?  Vessels  sailing  westward  hence  only  went  to 
Sydney  or  Manilla,  touching,  perhaps,  once  in  a  while  at  Tahiti ; 
and  even  there,  Protestant  and  Roman  Catholic  missionaries  had 
already  done  their  best  with  powder  and  cannon  balls  to  rob  the 
country  of  every  particle  of  originality.  And  for  what  other 
reason  had  I  come  to  these  latitudes  but  to  see  natives,  nature, 
and  natural  life  ?  but  not  to  rejoice  that  the  aborigines  now  wore 
pantaloons.  A  vessel  for  Sydney,  which  intended  to  stop  one  or 
two  days  at  Tahiti,  lay  in  the  harbor ;  but  the  master  of  it  asked 
an  exorbitant — really  Californian — price  for  a  passage ;  and  I 
did  not  know  what  to  do,  but  my  good  luck  and  the  kindness  of 
some  friends  in  Honolulu  introduced  me  to  the  captain  of  a 
German  whaler,  who  was  just  ready  to  start  on  a  whaling  cruise 
for  sperm  fish,  and  intended,  if  possible,  to  touch  at  some  of 
the  southern  islands  of  the  Society,  Tomatu,  or  Marquesas 
groups. 

We  soon  became  friends,  and  he  offered  to  take  me  for  a  very 
moderate  price  with  him,  and  put  rne  ashore  on  the  first  inhabit- 
ed island  we  sighted ;  but  he  could  not  promise  which  of  the 
different  groups  this  would  be ;  or,  if  carried  away  too  far  west 
in  pursuit  of  sperm  fish,  would  not  even  be  obliged  to  touch  at 
any  island,  if  it  cost  him  too  much  time,  but  land  me  again,  in 
that  case,  on  one  of  these  same  islands  where  we  were  now — 
most  probably  Hawaii.  It  was  all  the  same  to  me,  for  a  whaling 
cruise  was  the  main  object ;  and  afterward  I  left  every  thing  to 
my  lucky  star,  which  had  kept  me  hitherto  safe  and  sound. 


A  WHALING  CRUISE.  289 

My  few  traps  were  soon  taken  on  board,  and  we  could  have 
gone  out  next  day  if  some  of  the  men  had  not  taken  French  leave, 
walking  the  night  before  up  into  town,  and  not  returning.  If 
they  had  been  common  sailors,  it  would  not  have  been  much 
consequence,  for  the  captain  could  have  taken  kanakas  in  place 
of  them,  or  done  without  them,  but  they  were  the  two  carpen- 
ters, men  as  necessary  on  board  a  whale-ship  as  the  cooper  and 
blacksmith  are,  and  he  offered  at  last  one  hundred  and  fifty  dol- 
lars reward  if  the  police  could  catch  the  men  within  forty-eight 
hours.  The  marshal  of  the  fort  advised  the  captain  to  go  out 
with  his  vessel  to  sea,  and  return  at  the  appointed  time ;  the 
men,  who  most  certainly  had  run  up  into  the  mountains,  or  if 
not,  were  concealed  in  some  grog-shop  in  town,  would  then  make 
their  appearance  openly,  because  they  would  think  all  danger 
passed,  and  could  easily  be  taken.  We  did  so — went  out  to  sea 
till  we  brought  the  peaks  of  Oahu  nearly  down  to  the  horizon, 
and  then  returned  with  all  sails  set ;  but  it  was  no  go.  The  men, 
however,  had  been  seen,  and  when  I  went  ashore  with  the  cap- 
tain, the  marshal  begged  us  to  go  to  sea  again,  arid  he  would  in- 
sure catching  the  runaways  this  time,  because  it  was  now  pretty 
well  known  where  they  were,  and  they  could  not  hold  out  much 
longer,  as  they  had  nq  fruit  or  provisions  up  in  the  mountains. 
The  captain  could  hardly  do  without  his  carpenters,  and  staying 
this  night  in  Honolulu  again,  we  went  to  sea  next  morning  a 
second  time,  and  seemingly  in  good  earnest,  with  flying-jib  and 
every  light  sail  set  that  we  could  carry.  The  marshal  had  prom- 
ised us  this  time  a  sign  :  when  we  came  near  the  land  again,  if 
we  saw  a  white  flag  flying  on  the  fort,  the  men  were  caught,  and 
we  should  only  have  to  come  near  enough  for  a  police-boat  to 
bring  the  prisoners  on  board.  If  the  white  flag  was  not  flying, 
the  police  had  not  been  successful. 

But  the  white  flag  was  hoisted,  and  running  along  shore,  a 
whale-boat  carne  out  to  us,  just  as  we  passed  the  entrance,  and 
two  police-officers,  with  four  kanakas  pulling,  brought  the  car* 
penters  prisoners,  with  an  authority  to  receive  the  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars  reward. 

The  poor  devils  looked  pale  and  downcast  enough,  and  had  also 
a  very  good  reason  for  it,  as  they  were  not  only  caught  and  de- 
livered over  to  their  old  ship,  which  they  had  run  away  from, 
but  also  had  to  pay  the  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  from  their  share 

N 


290  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

in  the  voyage,  and  would  have  to  work  with  the  certain  prospect 
of  toiling  the  whole  voyage  for  nothing. 

We  had  tacked  in  the  mean  time,  and  bracing  the  yards,  and 
setting  all  our  light  sails  again,  we  kept  on  our  course  in  good 
earnest,  going  as  close  on  the  trade- winds  as  we  could,  about 
south-southeast  toward  the  fishing-ground  for  sperm-whales. 

With  a  good  breeze,  the  next  day  Hawaii,  or  Owhyhee,  where 
Captain  Cook  was  slain,  hove  in  sight.  We  could  notice  the 
gigantic  volcanic  masses,  and  the  smoke  curling  up  from  the  fur- 
nace of  the  goddess  Tele  ;  and  I  watched  this  mountain  a  long, 
long  while,  as  it  rose  on  the  horizon,  with  its  sharp  outline  against 
the  clear  blue  sky,  a  wonderful  mass  of  rock  and  lava,  growing 
out  from  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  with  only  a  crust  upon  it,  that 
covered  a  bed  of  fire. 

The  volcano  was  working  at  this  time,  at  least  thundering  and 
rumbling  within,  and  only  a  year  later  it  broke  out  anew,  and 
rolled  immense  masses  of  burning  lava  down  even  to  the  foaming 
sea.  No  wonder  the  Indians  thought,  and  still  think  that  a  fire- 
god  lives  in  the  boiling  streams  of  glowing  lava,  though  we  con- 
tradict it,  of  course,  and  prove  to  them  the  impossibility  of  the 
thing. 

But  leaving  the  goddess  Tele  to  prove  her  existence  herself, 
we  manned  the  tops  next  day — that  is,  two  men  were  sent,  one 
to  the  main  and  one  to  the  fore-top  to  look  out  for  whales,  and 
with  this  our  cruise  commenced. 

Whalers — to  say  at  least  a  few  words  about  our  vessel  itself, 
and  introduce  the  reader  to  our  fishing  gentry — always  carry 
more  than  the  usual  complement  of  men  for  vessels  of  their  ton- 
nage, because  they  must  have  hands  left  on  board  to  work  the 
ship,  and  after  fish  have  been  taken,  to  boil  out  the  blubber, 
while  four  boats  from  ]arge  vessels,  and  fewer  from  smaller  ones, 
are  usually  out  chasing  other  fish  in  sight.  Each  boat  has  a 
crew  of  four  men,  besides  the  boat-steerer  and  a  man  at  the  head 
of  the  boat.  The  captain  of  most  vessels  never  leaves  his  ship, 
though  in  some,  he  goes  himself  in  the  first  boat  as  the  look-out, 
leaving  another  one  at  the  same  time  to  command  the  vessel. 

A  whale-ship  also  differs  in  its  deck  construction  from  any 
other  vessel.  Between  the  mainmast  and  the  foremast  are  the 
try  works — large  furnaces,  built  of  brick,  and  containing  two  or 
more  very  large  iron-posts  for  trying  out  the  oil  from  the  blubber 


A  WHALING  CRUISE.  291 

— close  to  it  is  the  galley,  sometimes  not  much  larger  than  an 
overgrown  sentry-box,  with  a  stove  in  it,  which  leaves  hardly 
room  enough  for  the  cook  to  sit  before  it  and  broil  his  knees  ;  all 
kind  of  pots  and  kettles  hang  up  inside,  and  a  perfect  variety  of 
copper  and  iron  vessels  are  fitted  upon  every  part,  in  every  nook 
and  corner  of  this  machine ;  while  it  is  a  mystery  to  me  how  a 
human  being  is  able  to  stand  the  heat  of  such  a  box  in  a  warm 
climate,  at  least  six  or  seven  hours  of  the  day.  It  is  true  they 
nearly  always  have  black  men  for  cooks,  who  are  used  to  a 
great  deal  more  heat  than  their  northern  pale-colored  brethren, 
but  even  these,  I  should  think,  must  have  their  very  marrow 
dried  up. 

Before  the  galley  there  is  also  a  blacksmith's  shop,  most  com- 
monly fitted  up  in  a  kind  of  box,  capable  of  being  moved  from 
one  place  to  another ;  a  blacksmith  having  always  something  to 
do  on  board  a  whale-ship  in  mending  of  spades,  lances,  or  irons, 
and  fitting  rings  or  hasps  on  other  articles,  for  the  ship  itself  or 
the  boats. 

Between  the  main  and  mizen  mast,  and  usually  extending  be- 
hind the  latter,  a  framework  of  spars  is  erected,  called  bearers, 
upon  which  the  spare  boats,  nearly  always  four,  are  turned  bot- 
tom upward. 

We  ran  south  nearly  fourteen  days,  and  tried  to  get  as  far  east 
out  of  the  trades  as  we  possibly  could  ;  but  it  was  very  little,  for 
the  wind  instead  of  being  northeast,  northward  of  the  line,  blew 
nearly  due  east,  and  our  vessel,  no  first-rate  one  by  the  wind, 
could  not  work  up  well  against  it.  Besides  that  we  sailed  very 
slowly,  and  therefore  drifted  the  more.  The  "Alexander  Bark- 
lay,"  an  American  built  ship,  before  she  started  from  Bremen, 
instead  of  being  coppered,  was  covered  with  plates  of  a  new  in- 
vention, a  kind  of  zinc  which,  while  being  a  great  deal  cheaper 
than  copper,  was  said  to  last  just  as  long ;  but  the  ship  had  not 
been  out  more  than  two  or  three  months  before  the  plates  began 
to  give  way,  and  when  I  came  on  board,  about  twelve  months 
after  her  first  start,  there  was  hardly  any  of  it  left  on  her  bow, 
and  on  both  sides  the  rags  hung  perfectly  round  her,  retarding  us, 
of  course,  considerably,  and  stopping  her  headway. 

Thursday,  the  2d  of  January,  we  "crossed  the  line  in  about 
156°  W.  Ion.,  and  two  days  afterward  the  call  first  gladdened 
our  ears,  "  There  she  blows  !" 


292  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

A  person  who  has  never  heard  this  call  on  board  a  whale-ship, 
after  a  long  spell  of  rest  and  watching,  can  have  no  idea  of  the 
wonderful  effect  it  produces,  like  an  electric  blow,  upon  officers 
and  crew.  "  There  she  blows  !" — the  words  pass  from  lip  to  lip 
— "Where,  where?" — "On  the  lee-bow,  nearly  ahead;"  and  the 
men  fly  to  their  boats ;  the  boat-header  takes  the  steering  oar  till 
his  boat  comes  "fast,"  the  boat-steerer  stands  with  the  iron  (har- 
poon) in  the  bow  of  the  boat  to  have  the  first  throw.  "  There  she 
blows  again,"  not  a  cable's  length  from  the  vessel,  and  five  or 
six  spouts  are  seen  in  quick  succession  ;  the  monstrous  fish,  un- 
conscious of  any  danger,  playing  and  chasing  each  other  in  the 
slowly  heaving  waves.  Down  the  boats  go,  as  quickly  and  noise- 
lessly as  possible,  the  officers  get  into  them,  some  of  the  men 
scramble  in  after  them,  the  broad  sail  of  the  little  craft  flies  up, 
the  wind  catches  it,  and  away  the  sharply-cut  boat  dashes  through 
and  over  the  foaming  waters,  followed  by  the  second,  third,  and 
fourth,  all  eager  to  come  up  with  some  of  their  blowing  and 
splashing  victims. 

In  former  times  sailing  up  to  a  whale  in  a  boat  was  thought  a 
very  dangerous  and  daring  feat,  because  they  were  not  able  to 
run  back  again  quickly  enough,  after  the  whale  was  struck  ;  but 
in  later  times,  when  the  whales  have  become,  like  a.ll  other  game, 
much  more  shy  and  wild,  whalers  find  pulling  up  to  a  fish  much 
too  slow  and  uncertain  work  to  be  very  profitable,  and  nearly  all 
the  fishermen,  and  principally  the  Americans,  sail  with  their 
boats  up  to  the  fish,  strike  their  irons  into  them,  if  they  get  a 
chance,  and  try  to  get  away  again  afterward  in  the  best  way 
they  can. 

We  could  make  nothing  of  the  first  whales  we  saw,  for  they 
ran  too  fast  to  be  overtaken  by  the  boats,  and  though  two  came 
very  nearly  within  striking  distance,  they  all  got  off,  at  last,  un- 
harmed. Our  captain,  however,  an  old  whaler,  liked  the  look  of 
the  water  here,  and  running  under  shortened  sail  half  the  night, 
on  the  old  course  we  tacked  about  midnight,  to  be  in  the  morning 
as  nearly  as  possible  on  the  same  spot  again  ;  and  sure  enough, 
the  sun  was  hardly  an  hour  high — -just  far  enough  out  of  the 
water  to  allow  a  fair  view  over  its  surface — when  the  cry,  "  There 
she  blows,  blows,  blows !"  as  new  spouts  followed  the  first,  brought 
our  ship  to,  and  the  boats  down  again. 

This  time  the  first  boat-header,  an  old  American,  who  had 


A  WHALING  CRUISE.  293 

been  bred  up  to  whaling,  and  done  hardly  any  thing  else  all  his 
life,  and  at  the  same  time  the  finest  specimen  of  an  old  tar  I  ever 
saw,  was  the  first  to  come  up  with  one  of  the  whales,  and  get 
fast,  as  he  carried  the  largest  sail.  The  other  three  boats  fol- 
lowed the  rest  of  the  shoal,  which  swam  along  on  the  surface  of 
the  water  a  considerable  time  and  then  disappeared  below  it, 
the  boats,  without  stopping,  keeping  in  a  straight  course  in  hopes 
of  seeing  the  fish  rise  again  after  awhile,  and  then  having  a  fair 
throw  at  them.  But  the  fish,  quite  contrary  to  their  calcula- 
tion, had  not  the  least  idea  of  running  away,  but  only  dived 
to  some  depth,  the  boats  passing  away  over  them,  and  then  rose 
again  very  nearly  on  the  same  spot  where  they  had  disappeared. 
The  three  other  boats,  seeing  the  spouts  behind  them,  turned 
round  as  quickly  as  they  could,  and  the  second  boat-header,  also 
an  American,  got  fast  this  time  to  another  whale. 

During  this  and  the  next  day  our  ship  lay  to,  taking  the 
whales  alongside,  and  cutting  them  up  ;  no  look-out  even  being 
kept  in  the  top  before  the  carcasses  had  been  cleared  away  from 
her  sides. 

The  most  interesting  part  of  the  cutting-up  to  me  was  the  first 
fastening  of  the  immense  blubber- hook,  a  large  iron  hook  of  ex- 
traordinary dimensions,  to  attach  which  one  of  the  boat-steerers 
has  to  go  down  upon  the  whale,  with  a  rope  slung  around  his 
waist  in  case  of  accident,  and  lift  the  hook — for  it  takes  all  his 
strength  to  do  that — into  a  hole  which  the  spades  of  the  boat- 
headers  have  cut  for  it ;  these,  at  the  same  time,  keeping  watch 
over  the  boat-steerer,  who  is  sometimes  half  under  water,  and 
has  half-a-dozen  sharks  close  around  him,  which  the  scent  of  the 
blood  has  enticed  to  the  captured  fish,  and  which  are  driven 
nearly  to  madness  by  their  unavailing  efforts  to  tear  off  a  piece 
of  the  tough  and  elastic  hide. 

There  were  five  of  these  hyenas  of  the  deep  round  this  one 
whale,  and  coming  as  boldly  and  insolently  as  possible  right  un- 
der the  very  spades  of  the  men.  But  the  sailors  hate  to  strike 
their  sharpened  tools  upon  the  rough  and  hard  skin  of  the  shark 
because  it  dulls  their  instruments  directly,  and  the  carpenters 
have  their  hands  full  of  work  without  that,  in  keeping  the  instru- 
ments in  good  order.  Only  once  the  first  boat-header  dropped  his 
spade,  which  was  as  sharp  as  a  razor,  upon  the  head  of  a  shark, 
and  laid  it  open  as  if  it  had  been  a  soft  potato.  The  shark,  a 


294  JOURNEY  ROUND   THE   WORLD. 

fellow  of  about  seven  feet  long,  had  come  up  to  the  boat-steerer 
— who  had  just  succeeded  in  fastening  the  hook,  and  had  no  time 
to  look  round — close  enough  to  take  one  of  his  legs  off  with  a 
single  snap,  but  the  spade  prevented  it.  Showing  the  white  of 
its  belly  directly,  it  sank,  and  the  boat-steerer  looking  over  his 
shoulder  and  seeing  his  dead  enemy,  only  shook  his  fist  at  it,  as  it 
disappeared  in  the  troubled  and  bloody  water. 

The  cutting  up,  or  hoisting  in  of  the  blubber,  occupied  all  the 
next  day,  and  even  when  it  had  become  perfectly  dark,  one  of 
the. heads  was  still  in  the  water,  held  by  a  rope  and  pushed 
about  by  a  couple  of  sharks,  which  had  already  torn  off  big 
pieces  from  it. 

In  the  afternoon  I  had  thrown  a  lance  into  one  of  these  savage 
fellows,  while  it  was  busy  in  tearing  off  a  piece  from  one  of  the 
heads  ;  as  I  was  some  distance  off,  the  lance  dropped  short  of  the 
mark,  and  only  pierced  the  thick  part  of  the  greedy  monster's 
tail.  The  shark  immediately  left  its  hold  of  the  head,  and  as 
soon  as  the  lance  came  out,  swam  some  hundred  yards  off;  but 
it  soon  returned,  and  fastened  on  the  head  again,  just  as  if 
nothing  had  occurred.  It  even  took  hold  of  the  same  piece 
again,  tore  it  off,  and  disappeared  with  it  before  I  had  time  to 
pull  up  the  lance. 

A  difficulty  now  arose  in  fastening  the  blubber-hook  on  the 
head  in  the  dark,  and  the  second  boat-steerer  had  made  several 
unsuccessful  attempts,  when  the  boat-header  called  for  a  blub- 
ber-lantern, and  soon  afterward  a  most  singular  torch  was 
brought  forward.  It  consisted  of  iron  hoops,  bent  together  in  the 
shape  of  an  open  basket,  the  hoops  about  four  inches  apart  from 
each  other,  to  let  the  light  pass  through  ;  and  this  fire-basket 
was  filled  with  thin  split  wood,  and  long  stripes  of  greasy  blubber. 
The  flame  soon  caught  the  oil,  and  blazing  to  a  height  of  nearly  three 
feet,  lit  up  the  dark  ocean  for  a  distance  of  about  thirty  yards, 
giving  the  dancing  waves  a  singular  transparent  hue,  and  throw- 
ing a  wild  unearthly  light  over  the  figure  of  the  reckless  sailor 
who  knelt  on  the  dark  slimy  surface  of  the  whale's  head, 
his  left  hand  firmly  grasping  the  open  blubber,  and  his  right 
arm  slung  round  the  heavy  iron  hook  to  lift  it  into  the  right 
place. 

What  was  that  light  streak  shooting  past  the  rolling  mass  just 
now?  Only  a  shark,  frightened  by  the  gleaming  torch,  and 


A  WHALING  CRUISE.  295 

returning  to  get  another  bite  at  the  fish,  his  lawful  prey  ;  for  is 
it  not  the  wild  and  fiery  master  of  the  deep  ? 

This  shark  held  on  by  the  whale's  head  till  it  rose,  lifted  by 
the  powerful  windlass,  nearly  out  of  the  water,  when  it  left  its 
hold  with  the  piece  of  the  torn-off  blubber  between  its  teeth. 

The  process  of  flencing — and  I  will  here  quote  a  few  lines  of 
Mr.  Olmstead's  short  and  excellent  description — is  as  follows  : 

"  Upon,  each  side  of  the  gangway  a  staging  is  let  down,  upon 
which  those  that  wield  the  cutting  spades  take  their  stand.  A 
deep  incision  is  made  into  the  neck  of  the  whale,  through  which 
the  blood  flows  in  a  deluge,  discoloring  the  sea,  and  almost  hiding 
the  animal  from  view.  The  ship  with  her  fore-topsail  hove  a- 
back,  moves  slowly  out  of  the  bloody  water ;  and  a  large  hole  is 
soon  cut  in  the  blubber,  into  which  the  blubber-hook  is  inserted, 
connected  with  the  windlass  by  a  powerful  purchase  or  cutting 
gear,  which  consists  of  two  very  large  and  strong  ropes,  passing 
through  powerful  blocks,  hanging  a  few  feet  below  the  main-top 
and  through  others  upon  deck,  strapped  with  large  thimbles,  into 
which  a  bar  of  wood  may  be  introduced. 

"After  the  hook  has  been  adjusted,  a  gash  is  cut  obliquely 
upon  each  side,  a  turn  or  two  is  given  at  the  windlass,  and  the 
blubber,  yielding  to  the  tremendous  strain,  becomes  detached, 
and  is  unwound  while  the  whale  rolls  over  and  over,  until  the 
entire  exterior  coat,  about  four  feet  in  breadth,  is  torn  off  down 
to  the  flukes.  "When  the  strip  of  blubber  has  been  elevated  to 
some  distance  above  the  deck,  the  second  set  of  cutting  gear  is 
brought  into  service,  and  the  strap  and  thimble  are  thrust 
through  an  opening  cut  into  the  blubber,  and  secured  by  the 
wooden  bar,  fixed  into  it,  while  the  blubber  above  it  is  severed 
and  dropped  into  the  blubber-room,  under  the  main-hatch.  Both 
the  blubber-hooks  are  now  dispensed  with,  and  the  thimbles  suc- 
ceed one  another  alternately,  until  the  body  of  the  whale  has  been 
disposed  of.  While  this  process  has  been  going  forward,  the 
head  has  been  cut  off  just  behind  the  eyes,  and  secured  to  the 
main  channels,  or  by  a  rope  passing  on  board,  and  fastened  there. 

"  The  head  of  the  sperm-whale  is  the  most  valuable  part  of  the 
animal,  containing  by  far  the  richest  proportion  of  spermaceti,  al- 
though the  oil  made  from  any  part  of  the  animal  yields  a  cer- 
tain proportion .  Hence  it  is  always  desirable  to  raise  the  head  upon 
deck,  if  practicable,  if  otherwise,  the  '  case,'  a  cavity  in  the  upper 


296  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

part  of  the  head,  is  opened  and  bailed  out,  while  the  latter  is  firmly 
secured  alongside  the  ship.  The  case  is  surrounded  by  a  thick 
wall  of  a  white,  gristly  substance,  termed  by  the  whalers 
"  white  horse  ;"  the  cavity  is  lined  with  a  yellowish  fat,  and  is 
filled  with  oil  of  a  very  superior  quality  which,  when  warm,  is 
perfectly  limpid,  but  concretes  in  beautiful  white  masses,  if  al- 
lowed to  become  cold,  or  just  oozing  from  out  the  head,  or  drip- 
ping upon  the  water. 

"  The  head,  oil  and  fat  are  immediately  committed  to  the  try 
pots,  while  the  blubber  is  cut  up  into  small  pieces.  The  fire  is 
commenced  with  dry  wood,  but  afterward  supported  with  great 
intensity  by  the  scraps,  or  refuse  pieces  of  blubber  from  which  the 
oil  has  been  tried  out.  Great  care  is  at  the  same  time  required 
in  trying  out  to  prevent  the  oil  from  being  burnt,  and  also  to  guard 
against  the  danger  of  water  getting  into  the  boiling  caldrons, 
which  would  immediately  dash  up  in  steam,  and  throw  the  con- 
tents around  in  every  direction.  Hence  this  process  is  very  hazard- 
ous in  boisterous  weather,  and  appears  to  be  dangerous  enough 
at  any  time." 

But  enough  of  the  technical  part  of  the  business,  which  I  have 
only  quoted  to  give  the  reader  some  idea  how  things  go  on,  on 
board  a  whale-ship.  The  next  day  we  were  busy  trying  out, 
and  in  the  heat  of  the  day,  nearly  under  a  tropical  sun,  the  scent 
of  the  blubber  was  far  from  sweet  and  pleasant,  but  that  was 
nothing  to  the  next  day. 

The  next  morning, the  mast-heads  were  manned  again,  andjjiot 
having  made  any  headway  from  the  neighborhood  where  the 
whales  seemed  to  have  their  feeding-ground,  the  men  had  been 
hardly  an  hour  aloft  when  the  call,  "  There  she  blows  !"  but  this 
time  over  to  windward,  again  sent  the  hands  into  the  boats,  and 
out  to  sea,  pulling  right  against  the  wind,  toward  the  place 
where  the  whales  were  spouting.  Three  hours  afterward  the 
first  headsman,  Mr.  Luis,  got  fast  again  ;  and  as  we  were  beat- 
ing up  against  a  tolerably  stiff  breeze,  it  became  nearly  dark 
before  we  could  get  the  whale  alongside. 

The  old  blubber  had  now  to  come  on  deck  to  make  room  in 
the  blubber-hole  for  the  fresh,  and  the  stench  it  emitted  the  next 
day  was  nearly  suffocating.  All  the  white  varnished  parts  of 
the  vessel  received  a  blue  and  lustrous  tinge,  the  smell  on  deck 
being  as  bad,  and  even  worse,  than  in  the  cabin. 


A  WHALING  CRUISE.  297 

We  commenced  trying  out  on  the  6th,  and  had  finished  by 
the  10th  of  January.  The  deck  still  looked  bad  enough,  but  the 
blubber  was  gone,  and  the  decks  were  also  soon  cleared,  The 
grease  of  the  sperm-whale  can  be  removed  very  easily  with  salt- 
water, being  in  this  respect  not  half  so  bad  as  that  of  the  com- 
mon whale,  which  requires  to  be  removed  by  the  ashes  of  the 
burnt  blubber,  and  hard  scrubbing.  A  singular  fact  connected 
with  the  sperm-fish  is,  that  its  own  skin  forms  the  best  soap  for 
washing  off  its  grease.  If  your  hands  are  dirtied  with  the  grease? 
you  have  only  to  scrape  the  thin  black  and  soft  outer  part  of  the 
skin  a  little,  and  you  may  wash  in  salt-water  the  grease  as  easily 
off  with  this  as  with  soap  in  fresh-water. 

These  three  fish,  though  of  no  great  size,  yielded  about  one 
hundred  and  four  barrels  of  oil ;  and  our  captain  had  strong  hopes 
of  falling  in  with  some  more  of  this  kind,  but  day  after  day  passed 
without  our  seeing  a  single  spout.  The  deck  was  hailed  several 
times,  it  is  true,  but  only,  as  it  turned  out  afterward,  for  a  fin- 
back, or  perhaps  the  deceiving  light  of  the  sun  that  glittered  on 
the  waves,  and  made  the  look-out  fancy  it  the  spout  of  a  sperm- 
fish. 

But  though  no  fish  were  seen,  we  had  to  keep  a  pretty  good 
look-out  notwithstanding  all  the  while,  for  a  great  many  small 
islands  lay  scattered  about,  and  new  coral-reefs  rise  every  year 
out  of  the  ocean,  endangering  the  careless  mariner.  Shipwrecks 
are  by  no  means  rare  in  these  latitudes,  and  principally  on  Christ- 
mas Island,  a  little  flat  coral-bank,  over-grown  with  bushes  and 
some  cocoa-palms,  about  4°  N.  lat,  and  just  on  the  track  of  by- 
the- winders  coming  from  the  Sandwich  Islands,  where  several 
ships  have  been  lately  wrecked.  The  first  was  a  German  whale- 
ship  on  her  home  passage  with  a  full  cargo  of  oil ;  she  ran  aground 
there  at  daybreak  one  fine  morning,  the  captain,  it  is  said,  not 
attending  to  the  steward,  who  told  him  that  he  thought  he  heard 
breakers  ahead.  They,  however,  landed  a  great  quantity  of 
water  and  provisions,  and  were  taken  on  board  an  American  vessel, 
which  accidentally  passed  by.  Only  fourteen  days  after  this  an 
English  whale-ship  was  wrecked  on  the  same  spot,  without  being 
able  to  save  any  thing,  and  they  would  have  starved  but  for  the 
provisions  and  water  which  the  German  crew  had  left  there.  I 
was  told  that  the  mate  of  this  vessel  with  four  sailors  went  back 
to  the  Sandwich  Islands  in  a  whale-boat,  and  returning  on  board 


298  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

another  homeward  bound  vessel,  brought  the  whole  crew  safely 
off. 

We  now  neared  the  group  of  the  Society  Islands,  but  the  steady 
easterly  wind  and  a  strong  current  toward  the  west,  which  had 
full  power  to  carry  us  with  it,  while  Iaying4o  to  take  in  the  blub- 
ber, had  taken  us  much  father  west  than  our  captain,  who  had 
been  in  hopes  even  of  making  the  Marquesas  Islands,  first  in- 
tended. As  it  was,  we  should  not  even  have  made  this  group 
without  running  farther  south,  and  tacking  again,  but  for  a  light 
westerly  breeze  which  sprung  up  just  as  we  were  in  the  same 
latitude  as  some  of  the  islands. 

The  yards  being  braced  quite  square,  we  ran  about  four  knots 
right  toward  the  east,  and  sighted  land  that  same  evening.  Dur- 
ing the  night  we  shortened  sail,  and  at  daybreak  next  morning, 
having  a  small,  low  island  before  us,  we  set  all  sail,  and  went 
close  up  to  it. 

By  our  reckoning  it  was  a  small  island,  marked  in  the  English 
charts  under  the  name  of  Charles  Saunders,  in  151°  W.  Ion.  and 
17°  S.  lat,  but  knowing  no  more  of  it,  we  had  no  idea  whether 
it  was  inhabited  or  not.  If  it  was  inhabited,  I  cared  little  by 
whom,  I  was  fully  determined  on  being  left  here  with  my  things, 
trusting  to  chance  to  get  away  again  ;  and  the  reader  may,  there- 
fore, believe  that  I  commenced  feeling  a  great  interest  in  this  lit- 
tle spot,  and  kept  watching  it  with  my  pocket  telescope,  in  order 
to  recognize  some  sign  of  human  beings.  At  last,  on  getting 
close  enough  to  distinguish  trees  on  the  hill,  and  the  white  coral- 
reef  round  the  darker  vegetation,  we  saw  smoke  curl  up  from  one 
of  the  thickets,  and  I  began  directly  packing  up  my  things,  to  be 
ready  for  a  start. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


WE  came  nearer  and  nearer ;  and  the  captain,  after  remon- 
strating with  me  at  first }  and  advising  me  not  to  risk  my  life  and 
time  by  throwing  myself  on  an  island  nobody  on  board  knew 
any  thing  about,  and  seeing  me  determined  to  try  it  at  any  haz- 
ard, hove  to,  and  let  down  a  boat  with  the  first  boat-header  and 
the  four  boat-steerers  for  oarsmen  in  it,  as  he  was  afraid  to  trust 
his  own  men  ashore ;  and  after  a  hearty  farewell  from  the  captain, 
who  had  been  a  true  friend  to  me  all  the  voyage,  I  handed  my 
rifle  down  into  the  boat,  and  following  after  it,  we  shoved  off,  and 
were  soon  pulling  fast  up  toward  the  white  breakers  of  the  reefs, 
behind  which  cocoa-nut  trees,  with  their  graceful  leaves,  waved 
a  friendly  welcome  to  their  shores. 

We  could  clearly  recognize  every  object  on  shore,  but  could  not 
observe  a  human  being  or  canoe,  and  yet  we  had  most  certainly 
seen  smoke,  and  there  were  people  living  on  it.  Pulling  on 
toward  the  breakers  of  the  reefs,  which  encircled  this  island,  like 
all  the  others  in  the  South  Sea,  with  the  intention  of  following  it 
in  our  little  craft  till  we  found  an  entrance,  we  suddenly  saw  two 
canoes  shoot  out  from  behind  a  little  coral  headland  inside  the 
reefs,  and  pull  up  as  hard  as  they  could  straight  toward  them, 
motioning  us  all  the  while  to  turn  to  our  left.  But  at  the  same 
time  we  saw  to  our  right  another  canoe  with  three  Indians,  who 
planted  a  little  flag  on  the  reefs  to  show  that  this  was  the  en- 
trance, and  we  determined  on  pulling  toward  them. 

The  first,  seeing  we  did  not  turn  to  them,  got  out  on  some 
sheltered  spot  of  the  reef,  and  pulling  their  canoes  through  the 
breakers,  which  were  no  great  height  on  that  spot,  let  it  down 
again  on  the  outside,  jumped  into  it,  and  came  after  us  as  hard 
as  they  could  paddle.  They  were  light  brown,  and  slender  but 
vigorous  men,  in  calico  shirts,  a  kerchief  round  the  head,  another 


300  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

round  their  loins,  and  their  friendly  "  Toranna,  toranna  bo — y !" 
sounded  from  afar  over  to  us. 

We  now  lay  on  our  oars,  to  wait  for  them,  and  they  soon  came 
alongside  of  us  ;  one  of  them,  who  spoke,  some  broken  English, 
acting  as  interpreter,  appeared  to  pride  himself  not  a  little  on  his 
knowledge  of  the  strange  language,  though  the  words  sounded 
singular  and  queer  enough. 

The  first  boat-header  of  the  "Alexander  Barklay,"  who  had 
lived  and  whaled  many  a  long  year  in  this  ocean,  and  had  re- 
sided for  six  years  in  New  Zealand,  living  there  with  the  Indians, 
and  speaking  their  language  as  well  as  the  kanaka,  tried  to 
commence  a  more  reasonable  discourse  with  the  help  of  these, 
but  it  was  "  no  go,"  and  we  had  to  fall  back  upon  the  Indian,  and 
get  on  as  well  as  we  could  with  his  English. 

"  Plenty  fruit  here  ?"  The  American  asked  the  Indian,  who 
was  pulling  and  nodding  to  us  just  alongside. 

"  Good  morni — good  morni,"  came  the  friendly  reply. 

"  Plenty  fruit  ?"  the  mate  cried  a  second  time. 

The  Indian  held  up  his  fore-finger,  and  said,  with  a  greal  deal 
of  self-complacency  : 

"  Acta — one  mile  !" 

"  Go  to  the  devil  !"  murmured  the  seaman  ;  and  trying  an- 
other method  of  making  himself  understood,  continued  :  "  Cocoa- 
nuts?" 

"  Eh,  eh,"  the  Indian  answered  quickly,  understanding  at 
once  what  the  stranger  meant,  "  heari,  heari — too  much,  too 
much  !" 

"  Too  much,  eh  ?"  smiled  the  mate  ;   "  and  bananas  ?" 

"  Eh,  eh — meja,  meja — too  much,  too  much  !" 

"  And  oranges  ?" 

"  Eh,  eh — anani,  anani — too  much,  too  much  !" 

"  And  bread-fruit  ?"  The  result  was  the  same  ;  the  islanders 
had,  if  we  could  believe  this  fellow,  too  much  of  every  thing ; 
and  he,  thinking  he  had  now  satisfied  us  as  to  all  we  wanted  to 
know,  beckoned  us  to  follow  him  to  the  entrance  of  the  reefs ; 
and  letting  his  canoe  glide  ahead,  we  kept  in  his  wake,  carefully 
sounding  the  white  coral  bottom,  which  we  could  see  plainly 
enough  below  us,  for  fear  of  running  aground  here,  and  getting 
our  boat  stove  in.  But  the  channel  which  led  through  the  reefs 
toward  the  shore  was,  though  small,  deep  enough,  and  a  few 


MA1AO.  301 

minutes  afterward  the  sharp  iron-shod  bow  of  the  little  craft 
struck  the  white  coral  shore  of  Maiao,  as  the  Indians  themselves 
called  this  little  island. 

And  there  I  was  ;  the  ardent  desire  of  my  soul  was  at  length 
fulfilled.  Above  me  waved  the  fine  feathery  leaves  of  the  cocoa- 
nut  trees— one  of  the  most  splendid  trees  the  tropics  can  boast ; 
under  my  feet  I  felt  the  burning  hot  coral  sand  of  another  clime; 
round  me  I  saw  and  heard  the  chattering,  lively  forms  of  the 
dark-skinned  Indians  ;  and  I  had  really  reached  that  scene  I  had 
longed  for  since  I  fancied  myself,  as  a  child,  Kobinson  Crusoe  on 
his  wild  island,  wishing  the  time  arrived  when  I  could  go  myself 
to  sea  to  seek  and  find  the  reality  of  my  childish  dreams. 

And  would  my  soul  now  feel  satisfied  with  all  the  riches  nature 
could  and  did  offer  ?  Would  the  presentiment  become  true,  which 
had  spoken  in  my  heart  long,  long  ago  :  "If  ever  you  see  the 
palm-covered  isles  of  the  South  Sea,  you  will  never  leave  them ; 
or,  if  you  leave  them,  your  heart  will  ever  yearn  to  them,  and 
never  grant  you  rest  till  you  return  to  their  enchanted  shores  ?" 
Could  and  would  I  have  lived  here,  even  if  I  had  had  my  family 
around  me,  cut  off  from  every  communication  with  the  other 
world  ;  and  would  nature  alone  be  able  to  compensate  me  for  all 
I  left  of  my  own  free  will  behind  me  ? 

This  thought  shot  like  lightning  through  my  mind,  even  in  the 
first  moment  my  foot  touched  the  desired  shore,  but  I  felt  in  no 
way  inclined  to  yield  to  it.  Here  I  was — I  would  see  and  enjoy 
what  I  saw,  leaving  every  thing  else  to  fate  and  the  future.  And 
I  had  very  good  reason  for  trusting  my  future  life  to  fate,  as  I  felt 
perfectly  satisfied  that  it  had  behaved  very  fairly  with  my  past. 

With  this  quickly-formed  resolution,  I  seized  the  nearest  and 
rather  frightened  Indian  by  his  right  fin,  shaking  it  in  the  most 
cordial  manner,  and  astounding  him  and  the  natives  around  me 
to  the  utmost  by  my  quick  and  apparently  fluently-spoken  "  To- 
ranna — tor  anna  bo — y  !" 

From  the  English-speaking  Indian  I  learnt  soon  afterward  that 
a  white  man  resided  on  the  island ;  and  while  the  mate  com- 
menced a  trade  with  them  for  fruit,  offering  them  in  exchange 
some  tobacco,  knives,  and  other  small  articles,  trying,  at  the  same 
time,  to  get  the  natives  to  cut  some  fuel  for  the  ship,  for  which 
they  had  to  pay  very  dearly  on  the  Sandwich  Islands,  I  left  my 
trunk  and  other  things  awhile  under  the  care  of  the  sailors  on 


302  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

the  beach,  and  selecting  a  young  fellow  for  my  guide,  who  directly 
took  hold  of  my  hand,  called  me  his  tuba,  or  friend  (a  name,  in 
his  mind,  leading  of  course  to  a  perfect  series  of  cotton  shirts, 
pounds  of  tobacco,  and  pocket-knives),  wandered  with  him,  with- 
out the  least  fear  of  treachery  or  ambuscade,  into  the  woods. 
These  natives  had  such  a  free,  kind,  and  open  look,  that  I  would 
have  trusted  them  at  any  time  with  my  life,  though  perhaps  not 
with  my  tobacco  or  coral-beads. 

We  crossed  a  little  thicket  of  the  pandanus  and  casuarina,  and 
soon  afterward  reached  an  open  piece  of  sand,  surrounding  a  small 
inland  lake,  or  lagoon,  of  salt-water,  in  a  basin  of  coral.  The 
sand  itself  consisted  of  nothing  but  fine  snow-white  particles  of 
coral ;  and  the  heat  in  the  open  white  plain  was  so  intense,  that 
I  had  to  shut  my  eyes  for  at  least  five  minutes,  to  ease  the  pain 
of  the  nerves.  But  I  had  some  cause  for  it.  The  sun  was  just 
above  my  head,  for  we  had  at  our  last  observation  on  board  88° 
45',  the  sun  meeting  us  and  going  toward  the  line ;  and  even  the 
Indians,  who  were  certainly  used  to  the  climate,  wore  a  kind  of 
screen  over  their  eyes,  plaited  out  of  the  leaves  of  the  cocoa-nut 
tree,  as  a  protection  against  the  burning  sun.  I  could  only  gradu- 
ally get  my  own  eyes  sufficiently  used  to  it  to  look  over  the 
country,  and  see  where  I  was. 

There  was,  however,  not  much  to  be  seen  here,  the  soil  con- 
sisting only  of  coral-sand,  and  the  whole  vegetation  being  hardly 
any  thing  but  pandanus,  and,  on  the  edge  of  the  lagoon,  cocoa- 
nut  trees.  After  walking  about  half  a  mile  in  this  heat,  my  lips 
felt  parched,  and  rny  new- won  friend,  to  whom  I  indicated  my 
desire  of  having  something  to  drink,  immediately  prepared  to 
walk  up  a  tree,  giving  me  a  splendid  opportunity  of  seeing  that 
process. 

The  young  fellow  stripped  a  piece  of  bark  off  one  of  the  near- 
est bushes,  and  tying  the  two  ends  together,  he  slung  it  around 
the  fore-part  of  his  feet,  lashed  his  feet  firmly  together  in  this 
way,  and  about  twelve  inches  apart  from  each  other ;  then  cling- 
ing to  the  trunk  of  the  cocoa-nut-tree  close  to  which  he  was 
standing,  he  lifted  himself  up  as  high  as  he  could,  pulled  his  feet 
after  him,  and  then  fixing  them  against  the  trunk,  with  this  shoe 
for  a  hold,  he  raised  his  body  again  to  his  full  length,  having 
nothing  to  do  but  to  stretch  himself,  and  pull  his  feet  after  him. 
He  ran  up  the  tree  like  a  cat  or  a  monkey  would  have  done,  and 


MAIAO,  303 

breaking  off  some  of  the  nuts,  took  hold  of  them  under  the  low- 
est point,  and  stretching  out  his  arm,  twirled  them  round  with 
his  thumb  and  middle  finger,  which  made  them  come  down  spin- 
ning through  the  air,  and  strike  the  sand  just  as  he  had  dropped 
them  from  above,  with  the  sharp  point  first.  If  the  nuts  had 
fallen  otherwise,  they  would  have  split  immediately,  and  of  course 
lost  all  the  water. 

On  the  Sandwich  Islands,  and,  in  fact,  in  Rio  de  Janeiro,  I 
had  already  learned  how  to  use  them ;  and  cutting  a  little  square 
hole  in  the  upper  part  of  the  nut  with  my  knife,  I  drank  a  whole 
one  at  a  draught,  and  thought  I  had  never  tasted  any  thing 
more  delicious  in  my  life. 

The  cocoa-nut,  to  be  fit  for  drinking,  must  be  unripe,  only  com- 
mencing to  get  a  kernel  or  pulp,  this  being  still  soft  enough  to  be 
removed  with  a  spoon  from  the  inside.  The  whole  nut  is  then 
filled  to  bursting  with  the  sweetest  water  imaginable,  and  a  sin- 
gle one  will  frequently  hold  two  large  tumblers  full. 

Going  round  the  lagoon,  we  came  to  an  outlet,  which  we  had 
to  wade  through.  To  save  my  shoes,  I  pulled  them  off,  and 
went  through  the  nearly  boiling  water  of  this  little  bayou  bare- 
footed ;  but  I  nearly  cried  out  several  times,  the  sharp  corals  at 
the  bottom  cut  me  so  very  badly ;  and  though  I  stepped  with  the 
utmost  caution,  and  nearly  as  attentively  as  if  walking  on  eggs, 
I  hurt  my  feet  in  several  places  before  I  reached  the  other  shore. 
My  little  companion  laughed  at  me ;  and  he  had  good  cause  for 
laughing,  being  blessed,  like  all  the  rest  of  them,  with  a  pair  of 
soles  which  a  blacksmith  could  not  have  made  more  rough  and 
strong. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  lagoon  lay  a  small  colony — a  row 
of  low,  comfortable  houses  in  the  shade  of  tall  mango-trees  and 
tamarinds  ;  but  we  did  not  stay  here,  my  guide  going  right  past 
them,  and  telling  me  the  white  man  lived  farther  inland.  He 
kept  talking  to  me  all  the  while,  relating,  I  am  certain,  a  very 
interesting  tale,  though  it  was  a  pity  I  did  not  understand  a  sin 
gle  word  of  it.  Glad  enough  to  escape  the  burning  sun,  we  at 
length  reached  a  shady  cocoa-nut  tree  grove,  and  came,  after  a 
short  walk,  and  after  stumbling  over  old  cocoa-nut  husks,  leaves, 
and  broken-down  bushes,  to  a  low  and  close  fence,  which  sur- 
rounded a  tolerably  large  and  roomy  cane  or  bamboo  hut. 

Here  the  white  man  lived ;  and  ten  minutes  afterward  I  found 


304  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

myself  seated  on  a  sea-chest,  surrounded  by  about  a  dozen  half- 
grown  and  grown  Indians,  opposite  my  host — >a  wild  Scotchman 
— and  steeping  bread-fruit  in  salt-water  and  eating  it,  as  if  I  had 
done  nothing  else  all  my  lifetime,  and  had  been  raised  on  cocoa- 
nuts  and  bread-fruit,  instead  of  pap  and  gruel,  and  other  luxuries 
of  childhood. 

The  white  man,  as  I  have  said,  was  a  Scotchman,  married  to 
one  of  the  Indian  girls,  and  was  a  most  worthy  specimen  of  those 
different  Europeans  scattered  over  the  islands  of  the  South  Sea, 
and  consisting,  ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred,  of  runaway  sailors, 
nearly  all  whalers,  who,  perfectly  satisfied  with  the  idle  and 
indolent  life  on  these  islands,  settle  down  on  some  of  them,  take 
one  of  the  girls  for  a  wife,  and  getting  deadened  afterward  to  all 
other  impressions,  end  their  lives  here  with  perfect  satisfaction 
and  thick  legs — for  the  elephantiasis  does  not  spare  Europeans. 

He  received  me,  however,  in  a  very  friendly  manner,  giving 
me  notice,  at  the  same  time,  that  we  must  first  of  all  pay  a  visit 
to  his  majesty  the  king,  and  ask  his  permission  to  let  me  stay  for 
a  time  on  the  island.  He  seemed  rather  anxious  to  do  this  as 
quickly  as  possible,  and  after  breakfast  went  back  with  me  to 
the  first  little  colony  I  had  seen,  which  I  now  found  was  the 
residence  of  the  viceroy  of  Maiao,  the  king  himself  living  in 
Huakeine,  a  larger  island  further  to  the  north. 

This  gentleman  was  at  home,  and  willing  to  grant  us  an  au- 
dience. He  was  lying  on  a  kind  of  bamboo  sofa,  his  head  resting 
on  the  lap  of  his  daughter-in-law,  who  was  occupied,  as  it  seem- 
ed, in  phrenological  studies — parting  the  hair  of  her  gracious 
liege,  and  looking  very  attentively  at  the  bumps — but  gave  up 
her  studies  as  soon  as  we  entered  the  little  room  ;  and  the  vice- 
roy rose,  and  shook  hands  with  us  in  a  very  friendly  and  con- 
descending manner. 

The  Scotchman  had  told  me  I  should  have  to  pay  a  certain 
sum  by  way  of  entrance  into  these  dominions,  the  Indians  getting 
quite  civilized,  as  it  seems,  though  his  majesty's  representative 
did  not  ask  any  thing,  but  told  me,  with  the  Scot  as  an  inter- 
preter, that  I  was  welcome  on  the  island ;  and  the  Scotchman 
only  had  to  guarantee  my  good  behavior.  As  my  host  now  told 
me,  the  laws  on  this  little  island  were  most  excellent.  Spirituous 
liquors  could  not  be  imported  on  any  condition.  Theft  happened 
very  seldom.  In  the  evening,  nobody  was  allowed  to  travel 


MAIAO.  305 

about;  and  the  morality  of  the  women  left  nothing  to  be  desired. 
"  By-the-by,"  he  continued,  interrupting  himself,  "has  your  ves- 
sel any  spirits  on  board  ?" 

u  Yes,  gin,  in  boxes,"  T  replied. 

"  Oh  !  that  is  right ;  then  I  may  get  a  box  on  shore,  eh  ?" 

"  On  shore  ?  But  how  if  the  law  entirely  forbids  it,  as  you 
just  told  me  ?" 

"  Oh,  we  can  smuggle  it  in  among  your  traps." 

I  did  not  like  this,  for  if  it  were  found  it,  it  would  give  me  a 
bad  introduction  to  the  kind  natives,  who  had  sense  enough  to 
forbid  the  use  of  such  dangerous  liquors  ;  but  the  Scotchman, 
having  got  the  scent  of  the  bottle,  as  it  seemed,  removed  all  ob- 
stacles, told  me  that  I  had  nothing  to  do  with  it  at  all,  since  he 
had  given  security  for  my  behavior,  and  tried  to  persuade  me 
that  he  did  not  care  himself  a  bit  for  the  liquor,  but  only  wanted 
to  smuggle  the  box  for  the  fun  of  the  thing.  •  I  told  him  to  do 
as  he  pleased — I  could  not  prevent  it ;  but  I  would  have  no  hand 
in  it,  and  so  the  matter  ended  for  the  present. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  mate  had  also  come  to  the  place,  with 
some  of  the  boat-steerers,  to  make  as  good  a  trade  as  they  could 
for  fruits,  sweet-potatoes,  and  shells,  in  exchange  for  whatever 
little  articles  they  had  with  them  ;  some  of  the  boat-steerers 
having  even  brought  shirts  with  them  to  swap  for  bread-fruit 
and  oranges.  As  the  viceroy  expressed  a  wish  to  see  the  ship, 
and  the  Scotchman  told  me  he  would  very  much  like  taking  a 
drink,  having  had  no  bitters  for  about  six  months,  they  all 
determined  on  going  on  board,  except  myself.  I  had  seen 
enough  of  ship-life  lately,  and  felt  perfectly  satisfied  on  shore, 
where  I  was. 

Not  knowing  how  long  or  short  my  stay  might  be  on  this  lit- 
tle island,  I  tried  to  see  now  as  much  as  I  could  of  it,  and  lost 
no  time  in  becoming  acquainted  with  the  inhabitants,  and  their 
life  and  customs.  Their  dress  was  simple,  but  already  showed 
some  sign  of  civilization  in  the  calico  covering.  The  women  wore 
a  piece  of  calico  (sometimes,  but  seldom,  of  tapa,  their  original 
cloth)  round  the  waist,  hanging  down  very  little  below  the  knee, 
and  another  of  the  same  material  over  the  left  shoulder,  tied  in 
a  knot  upon  the  right,  so  as  to  leave  the  right  arm  perfectly  free. 
Neither  men  nor  women  wore  shoes,  in  spite  of  the  sharp  coral- 
rocks,  and  they  ran  as  easily  over  the  hot  and  needle-like  pieces, 


306  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

as  if  passing  over  the  softest  carpet.    Children  of  five  or  six  years 
of  age  went  nude  up  to  their  necks. 

The  slender  light-brown  natives  of  these  shores  are  a  most 
beautifully-formed  race,  living  half  their  time  in  the  water, 
bathing,  swimming,  and  fishing.  Their  long  black  hair,  well 
combed,  and  saturated  with  scented  cocoa-nut-oil,  falls  in  natural 
tresses  down  their  shoulders ;  and,  with  their  noble  open  features, 
and  black  glowing  eyes,  their  dark  complexion  seemed  to  me 
rather  an  advantage  than  a  fault.  The  men  and  women,  at  the 
same  time,  do  not  use  the  large  ugly  beads  for  ornaments,  but 
their  own  sweet-smelling  flowers  and  herbs,  which  they  plait  into 
wreaths  round  their  heads,  or  put  them  in  their  ears,  especially 
some  large  and  beautiful  red  and  white  star-flowers. 

Differently  from  us,  the  women  are  shaped  exactly  like  the 
men,  with  shoulders  broader  than  their  hips  ;  and  as  both  sexes 
wear  nearly  the  same  dress,  and  flowers  in  their  ears  and  round 
their  heads,  it  requires  a  good  judge  to  tell  man  from  woman. 

But,  however  much  I  wanted  to  see  the  Indians,  so  much  the 
more  they  wanted  to  see  and  examine  me  ;  and  I  and  my  bag- 
gage formed  during  that  whole  day  the  centre  of  a  perfect  crowd. 
A  panther-skin  I  had  buckled  upon  my  trunk  attracted  their 
eyes  before  any  thing  else,  and  they  were  quite  astonished  at  the 
sharp  claws  of  an  animal  they  had  had  no  idea  of  up  to  this  day. 
But  the  principal  object  of  their  united  admiration  was,  as  on 
the  Sandwich  Islands,  the  bottle  of  snakes,  horned  frogs,  taran- 
tulas, and  large  beetles ;  the  girls  and  women  approaching  the 
dreadful  creatures  with  the  utmost  caution,  ready  at  the  least 
motion  of  the  bottle,  to  run  away,  as  if  they  had  seen  the  things 
alive  and  crawling  before  them,  and  laughing  and  chatting ; 
though  they  returned  when  the  men  tried  to  convince  them  the 
things  were  dead,  and  could  not  bite. 

After  this  carne  rny  instrument.  I  had  a  cithern  with  me — a 
German  instrument  with  seventeen  strings,  and  a  sweet  soft 
sound.  They  really  would  not  let  me  rest,  and  permitted  no  ex- 
cuse, till  I  consented  to  play  a  tune  for  them,  all  begging  as  hard 
as  they  could,  and  throwing  themselves  around  me  on  the  ground, 
as  soon  as  they  saw  me  take  hold  of  the  instrument. 

I  got  a  deep  insight  into  the  character  of  this  people  during 
the  short  quarter  of  an  hour  I  was  playing,  and  have  nof  the 
least  doubt  that  they  are  perfectly  fit  for  civilization,  and  able 


MAIAO.  307 

even  to  reach  the  highest  and  most  subtle  point.  I  will  tell  the 
reader  why  :  while  I  was  playing,  these  natural,  unsophisticated 
children  of  the  islands  behaved  exactly  in  the  same  manner  as 
the  most  refined  society  in  England,  France,  Germany,  or  the 
United  States  would  have  behaved,  or  does,  on  every  fitting  oc- 
casion— first,  all  besought  and  entreated  me  to  play,  as  if  the 
happiness  of  their  lives  depended  upon  it ;  and  I  had  hardly  com- 
menced, when  they  all  set  to  chatting,  talking,  and  laughing  ; 
some  few  listening  a  short  time,  while  the  others  kept  up  the 
noise ;  and  when  I  finally  stopped,  they  all  came  up  to  thank 
me,  shaking  hands,  and  pretending  they  had  heard  every  sound. 
Is  not  that  exactly  as  it  happens  with  us  ? 

After  the  music,  the  cover  of  my  German  hunting-pouch,  orna- 
mented with  deers'  claws,  attracted  general  attention.  I  did  my 
best  to  give  them  a  description  of  the  animal,  and  the  part  from 
whence  it  came ;  but  I  fear  I  did  not  succeed,  for  they  kept 
shaking  their  heads  and  looking  at  me.  My  Californian  bows 
and  arrows  came  next,  and  they  principally  admired  the  fox-skins 
which  the  Indians  use  for  a  quiver.  They  looked  afterward  very 
distrustfully  at,  and  after  some  persuasion  through  my  pocket 
telescope,  just  like  children 'shown  new  and  strange  objects;  and 
they  seemed,  in  fact  very  well  inclined  to  turn  me  inside  out, 
only  to  see  if  I  had  "  nothing  else." 

Some  tobacco  and  beads  which  I  divided  among  them,  seemed 
to  please  them  exceedingly,  and  did  very  much  to  befriend  me 
with  them  ;  and  two  worthy  matrons — matriarchs,  as  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Bingham  has  it — ladies  certainly  of  some  weight  in  their 
country  (between  fifteen  and  sixteen  stone)  commenced  taking 
care  of  me,  and  introducing  me  into  the  mysteries  of  their  lan- 
guage. As  they  treated  me  at  the  same  time  to  cocoa-nut  milk 
and  bread-fruit,  and  even  invited  me  to  some  raw  fish  and  salt- 
water (an  honor  I  declined),  I  found  myself  soon  at  home  among 
these  kind  and  friendly  people,  and  perfectly  comfortable. 

Evening  came,  but  the  canoes,  with  my  Scotchman,  and  the 
representative  of  his  liege,  the  king,  had  not  yet  returned ;  but 
having  already  agreed  with  the  former  to  take  my  things  up  to 
his  house,  I  selected  some  of  the  natives,  who  soon  managed  to 
have  all  my  luggage  packed  up  and  carried  on  sticks  between 
them  to  this  hut. 

We  passed  along  the  edge  of  the  little  inland  lake  or  lagoon, 


308  JOUJINEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

and,  with  the  setting  sun,  the  air  had  become  cool  and  balsamic. 
On  the  white  coral  strand  a  number  of  crabs  were  taking  their 
evening  walk,  paddling  when  we  approached  them,  with  raised 
claws,  sideways  down  into  the  water  as  quickly  as  they  could. 
We  reached,  just  at  dark,  the  little  cocoa-tree  thicket,  through 
whose  sombre  shade  we  could  hardly  see  our  road,  passed  it, 
and  soon  afterward  entered  the  hut  of  the  Scot,  where  the  in- 
mates lay  or  squatted  upon  mats  spread  out  upon  the  ground 
round  a  little  fire,  most  assuredly  only  kindled  to  keep  off  the 
musquitoes,  which  came  rushing  in  upon  us  in  perfect  swarms, 
and  bringing  back  to  my  recollection  the  delightful  hours  I  pass- 
ed in  their  unsought  company  on  the  shores  of  the  Mississippi. 

Of  course  I  had  to  overhaul  my  things  here,  for  the  men  and 
children  that  came  up  with  me — and  their  number  was  legion — 
related  the  most  wonderful  stories  about  them ;  but  being  tired, 
as  it  seemed,  the  lady  of  the  house  turned  in — that  is,  she  went 
to  a  large  bed  with  a  musquito  net  over  it,  that  filled  one  corner 
of  the  room,  and  disappeared  behind  the  curtains  ;  while  the 
rest  of  the  natives,  whom  I  had  fancied  neighbors  or  relations 
living  close  by,  proved  to  me  that  they  lived  closer  than  I  had 
thought,  by  spreading  their  mats  all  round  the  room.  They  had 
given  me  one  of  these  mats  for  my  use,  but  though  they  had 
turned  in,  they  all  were  up  and  alive  again,  even  Madam  herself, 
when  they  saw  that  I  had  some  way  of  my  own  in  sleeping  which 
never  seemed  to  have  occurred  to  them.  I  carried  a  hammock 
with  me  and  a  Mexican  serape,  and  while  I  slung  the  former 
between  two  posts  of  the  hut  and  spread  out  the  other,  they  all 
flocked  around  me,  really  screaming  in  pure  delight.  In  fact, 
they  would  not  go  to  bed  again  till  I  was  rolled  up  in  my  blank- 
ets, and  they  had  swung  me  awhile  backward  and  forward.  Five 
minutes  afterward  I  was  fast  asleep. 

But  I  was  not  fated  to  escape  so  easily.  The  musquitoes  had 
been  working  away  at  me  the  whole  time  ;  and  between  ten  and 
eleven  o'clock,  after  my  first  fatigue  had  been  slept  off,  and  fresh 
swarms  kept  following  the  first  ones,  they  awoke  me,  and  I  could 
not  get  a  wink  of  sleep  again  that  night.  I  fought  against  them 
all  night,  and  only  at  daybreak  fell  into  a  kind  of  restless  do2e. 

I  dreamt — I  don't  know  what ;  tortured  by  these  little  sharp- 
faced  rascals,  nobody  can  dream  a  good  and  regular  dream  out ; 
they  bring  the  blood  to  a  perfect  boil,  and  imagination  runs 


MAIAO.  309 

away  with  our  dreams  like  a  wild,  unbridled  steed  over  ditches 
and  walls,  from  image  to  image,  over  time  and  space.  But  1 
had  not  dozed  long,  when  I  felt  myself  shaken  by  the  shoulder, 
and  knowing  very  well  that  could  not  be  a  musquito,  I  looked  up, 
and  saw  by  the  dim  Hght  of  morning  that  stole  in  slowly  through 
the  basket-work  of  the  hut  walls,  my  old  honest  Scot,  a  great 
deal  better  than  half  in  the  wind.  He  was  as  drunk  as  he  pos- 
sibly could  get,  but  most  certainly  from  yesterday,  he  would  not 
have  had  time  to  work  himself  up  to  such  a  state  so  early  in  the 
morning,  and  there  was  no  hope  of  staying  any  longer  in  bed. 
The  whole  house  was  alarmed,  and  I  learned  very  soon  the  re- 
sult of  his  last  voyage  of  discovery  on  board  the  whale-ship. 

He  had  brought  thence,  as  belonging  to  me,  a  box  of  Dutch 
(i.  e.  Bremen)  gin,  and  took  such  care  of  this  box  (forme,  of  course) 
that  he  finished,  from  the  time  he  stepped  ashore,  about  ten 
o'clock  in  the  evening,  nine  and  a  half  of  the  bottles,  though  he 
swore  by  every  thing  above,  upon,  and  below  the  island,  there 
had  been  only  eleven  bottles  in  the  box,  and  that  a  great  many 
friends  had  helped  him  to  finish  what  he  did.  He  seemed  even 
to  have  some  idea  of  commencing  again  on  the  rest,  but  nature 
refused  to  take  any  more  on  board,  and  reeling  toward  a  large 
box  that  stood  on  one  side,  and  asking  me  to  call  him  in  about 
half  an  hour,  as  he  had  promised  the  captain  of  a  whaler — the 
gin  was  advanced  as  part  of  the  purchase-money — to  deliver  six 
cords  of  wood  in  the  course  of  the  next  forty- eight  hours.  He 
then  stretched  himself  on  the  box,  and  was  snoring  the  next 
minute  at  the  rate  of  ten  knots  an  hour. 

Two  hours  later  I  thought  it  time  to  rouse  him ;  he  might 
have  slept  off  at  least  a  part  of  his  nine  bottles,  but  I  might  just 
as  well  have  tried  to  shake  the  box  on  which  he  slept  to  con- 
sciousness. His  wife  then  took  a  spell  at  it,  and  after  her  his 
brother-in-law,  and  then  I  again,  but  without  the  least  visible 
result.  I  gave  the  thing  up  at  last  as  a  bad  job,  and  as  I  had 
not  the  least  interest  in  his  getting  up  or  sleeping  for  the  next 
week,  I  took  my  seat  just  in  the  door  of  the  hut,  watching  with 
some  curiosity  the  indefatigable  arms  of  the  two  natives,  brother 
and  sister,  who  worked  away  to  rouse  the  sleeping  drunkard. 
But  even  they  gave  it  up  at  last,  and  the  Indian  stretched  him- 
self again  on  his  mat,  to  rest  after  his  extraordinary  exertion, 
while  the  woman  squatted  down  at  the  hearth,  to  make  a  fire, 


312  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

he  had  brought  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  brace  of  wild  ducks 
here  himself  and  let  them  fly.  I  saw  three  out  of  the  number  ; 
but  he  never  told  me  whence  he  brought  such  a  quantity,  "  but 
Brutus  is  an  honorable  man."  He  gave  me  permission  to  shoot 
as  many  as  I  pleased  out  of  pure  kindness. 

Toward  evening  I  went  to  the  viceroy's  house,  and  found  a 
great  crowd  collected  there  and  waiting  the  trial.  Outside  the 
low  fence  the  women  and  children  sat  talking  and  playing,  the 
boys  wrestling  and  chasing  each  other,  and  the  girls  looking  at 
them  with  loudly  expressed  delight. 

The  jury — consisting  of  seven  men,  the  viceroy  squatting  down 
close  to  them,  and  leaning  with  his  back  against  his  own  door- 
post— were  seated  on  outspread  mats  studying  with  great  atten- 
tion a  little  volume,  printed  by  the  missionaries,  which  contained 
their  laws  for  Huakeine  and  Maiao. 

The  manner  of  administering  justice  seems  to  differ  here  from 
that  in  other  countries,  the  jury  being  at  the  same  time  witnesses 
and  attorneys,  speaking  both  for  and  against  the  accused ,  and 
the  constable  who  had  informed  against  the  Scot,  had  to  plead 
his  own  cause,  for  the  case,  as  it  seemed,  turned  against  the 
police-officer  himself,  as  he  had  no  business  to  interfere  with  a 
white  man.  Some,  in  fact,  my  host  told  rne,  wanted  to  make  it 
a  question  of  principle,  whether  a  white  man,  who  had  settled 
among  them  as  one  of  themselves,  had  to  be  considered  above  or 
under  their  laws.  One  of  the  jury  now  got  up,  and  making  a 
a  short  but  lively  speech,  without  stopping  or  stammering,  and 
with  free  and  easy  gesticulations,  put  the  case,  as  I  heard  after- 
ward, simply  before  the  viceroy  and  the  judges ;  and  after  him 
the  constable,  a  fine  young  fellow  in  a  white  cotton  shirt,  a  piece 
of  tapa  around  his  loins,  and  two  large  star-flowers  in  his  ears, 
rose,  and  defended  what  he  had  done,  asking  at  the  same  time 
that  the  transgressor  should  be  punished. 

After  him  my  Scotchman  had  to  come  forward,  and  defend  him- 
self, and  he  did  it — considering  he  had  not  had  a  drop  of  soda- 
water  this  morning — fluently  enough.  His  defense,  as  he  told 
me,  was  based  on  the  law  itself,  which  was  only  made  against 
such  persons  as  were  under  a  suspicion  of  theft,  and  who  had 
given  cause,  at  least  once,  for  such  suspicion ;  he,  of  course,  was 
above  that. 

After  him  the  constable  spoke  again,  and  with  a  great  deal  of 


MAIAO.  313 

animation.  I  had  never  expected  so  much  life  and  fire  in  one  of 
these,  as  it  had  seemed  to  me,  perfectly  indolent  Indians.  But 
the  poor  devil  had  no  chance  against  the  white  man,  whose  rela- 
tions and  friends  were  among  the  jury ;  three  of  them  rose  one 
after  another,  speaking  in  favor  of  the  Scotchman,  the  whole  con- 
cluding with  a  verdict  against  the  poor  constable,  who,  besides  a 
reprimand,  was  sentenced  to  a  fine  of  one  dollar,  which  he  paid 
down  on  the  spot,  and  was  warned  to  be  careful  next  time  how 
he  "  barked  up  the  wrong  tree." 

The  next  day,  Saturday,  I  intended  to  make  a  tour  round  the 
island,  and  climbing  up  the  hill,  just  behind  my  host's  house,  I 
had  to  cross  his  garden,  a  little  spot,  cultivated  with  some  care, 
and  forcibly  showing  the  riches  of  this  tropical  climate. 

With  hardly  any  labor  at  all,  except  fencing  in  the  ground, 
against  the  numerous  pigs — which  ran  about  through  the  woods, 
getting  fat  on  all  kinds  of  fruits— cocoa-nut  bread-fruit,  and  ba- 
nanas, grew  spontaneously ;  and  half  an  acre  of  ground  had  been 
worked  up  into  low  ridges  for  sweet  potatoes,  a  vegetable  that 
grows  most  excellently  in  this  climate. 

The  main  food  on  these  islands,  is  the  bread-fruit ;  but  though 
it  yields  two  crops  of  ripe  fruit,  it  is  not  always  eatable  through- 
out the  year,  and  two  months  interval  elapses  between  the  two 
crops.  Nature  has,  however,  provided  for  this  by  an  abundance  of 
oranges,  guaiavas,  bananas,  papayas,  and  other  fruits,  while  the 
Indians  plant  at  the  same  time  taro,  yam,  and  sweet  potatoes,  but 
they  even  know  how  to  preserve  the  bread-fruit,  which  they  do  not 
like  to  miss  for  a  single  day ;  for  they  put  a  quantity  of  them  to- 
gether to  ferment,  and  obtain  in  this  way  a  kind  of  strongly  acidu- 
lous paste,  which  tasted  to  me  like  spoiled  and  sour  mush  ;  but  the 
Indians  relish  it  exceedingly,  and  prefer  it  even  to  the  fresh  fruit. 

I  saw  bananas  here  planted  in  rows,  the  stem  always  sending 
forth  some  fresh  shoots  when  nearly  ripe.  The  quick  growth  of 
these  plants  is  most  extraordinary.  They  shoot  up  in  eighteen 
months  with  a  stem  of  about  five  to  six  inches  in  thickness,  and 
bear  an  immensely  large  fruit,  which  contains  nearly  a  hundred 
of  the  single  bananas. 

Another  fruit,  brought  here  from  the  Brazils,  is  the  guaiana- 
apple,  which  now  forms  woods  and  thickets,  and  has  overgrown 
all  the  islands.  It  is  a  large  apple,  with  a  thin  and  bright  yel- 
low peel,  and  rosy  looking  juicy  meat.  This  apple  grows  in  such 

0 


314  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

profusion  on  the  islands  as  to  be  the  main  food  for  hogs,  which 
get  very  fat  on  them. 

After  leaving  the  garden,  which  I  had  to  do  by  climbing  the 
fence  again,  I  had  to  work  my  way  in  a  dreadful  heat,  through 
a  perfect  forest  of  guaiana-bushes,  the  fruit  of  which — these  have 
also  two  crops — not  being  quite  ripe,  till  I  nearly  reached  the 
height ;  and  here  the  wood  seemed  perfectly  open,  in  a  higher 
growth  of  casuarinas,  which  crowned  the  upper  ridge.  I  reached 
the  highest  peak  with  greater  ease,  though  attacked  here  by  per- 
fect swarms  of  musquitoes,  perhaps  five  hundred  feet  above  the 
level  of  the  sea,  and  I  enjoyed  a  most  splendid  view,  not  only 
over  the  wide  blue  ocean,  but  also  over  the  little  beautiful  spot 
in  it,  with  its  groves  of  fruit  and  cocoa-nut  trees,  the  different 
colored  lagoons  with  their  white  coral  bottoms,  varying  in  all 
shades,  from  the  brightest  green  to  the  deepest  blue,  the  snow- 
white  breakers  of  the  coral-reef  that  encircled  the  islands,  form- 
ing a  perfect  setting  to  the  picture. 

The  panorama  around  me,  with  its  perfectly  new  and  striking 
features  was  indescribably  beautiful ;  but  if  it  were  a  paradise, 
the  musquitoes  were  the  angels  with  the  flaming  swords  that 
drove  me  out  of  it.  Clambering  down  the  tolerably  steep  height 
again,  I  reached  a  perfect  plantation  of  bread-fruit  trees,  papayas, 
custard  apples — the  tappo  tappos  of  the  Indians — with  rows  of 
sweet  potatoes  and  water-melons ;  and  the  farther  I  got  down, 
the  more  I  found  myself  in  finely-cultivated  grounds,  and  if  not 
among  real  plantations — the  island  being  too  small  to  allow 
them — still  in  fields  of  sugar-cane  and  pine-apples. 

Here  I  also  found  a  well-beaten  path,  which  led  me  slowly 
down  the  hill  and  along  it,  toward  the  upper  part  of  the  little 
island,  and  following  this  I  soon  reached  the  main  colony,  in 
which  I  could  even  recognize  some  very  nicely-built  houses. 
Here  also  the  church  stood,  a  long,  roomy  and  lofty  edifice,  with 
benches  and  a  low  pulpit,  upon  which  lay  a  Tahitian  Bible. 
Right  opposite  the  church  a  little  wooden  covered  frame  held  the 
bell. 

Slowly  walking  along,  I  met,  rather  to  my  astonishment,  a 
perfect  crowd  of  well-dressed  girls  and  women,  all  going  to 
church,  some  even  carrying  Bibles  and  prayer-books  under  -their 
arms,  and  still  I  knew  most  certainly  it  was  only  Saturday,  and 
what  other  holy-day  could  they  have  ?  Soon  afterward  I  heard 


MA1AO.  315 

them  ring  the  bell  for  divine  service,  and  could  not  guess  what 
festival  they  could  possibly  celebrate  in  February,  except  their 
Sunday ;  but  my  Scotchman  afterward  explained  the  mistake  to 
me.  The  missionaries,  coming  from  England  round  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  and  knowing  very  little  or  nothing  about  navigation, 
seemed  to  have  no  idea  of  thus  gaining  a  day,  by  crossing  the 
180th  degree  of  longitude  ;  and  as  they  kept  their  Sabbath  as 
usual,  they  got  back  thus  to  the  Saturday.  Only  in  Tahiti  and 
the  opposite  Emao,  which  the  French  have  taken  possession  of, 
they  have  also,  and,  in  fact,  forcibly,  altered  the  Sunday  to  its 
right  time,  confusing  the  natives  not  a  little,  who  can  not  under- 
stand what  can  have  been  the  matter  with  the  day. 

I  stopped  in  several  of  the  huts,  and,  in  fact,  wherever  I  passed 
they  called  to  me,  and  did  not  seem  satisfied,  till  I  had  come  in 
to  them,  arid  drunk  some  of  their  cocoa-nut  milk  or  tasted  a  piece 
of  bread  fruit.  There  was  a  natural  courtesy  among  these  tribes, 
who  were  as  free  as  they  were  unaffected,  and  at  the  same  time 
it  was  coupled  with  such  kindness  that  I  felt  at  home  among 
them  from  the  first  moment,  and  through  all  my  travels  after- 
ward— through  the  wide  plains  of  the  Murray  or  the  beautiful 
valleys  of  Java — I  never  forgot  this  fiffendly  little  island  in  the 
South  Sea. 

The  next  morning  there  was  a  great  assembly  at  the  Scotch- 
man's house  of  all  the  girls  in  the  neighborhood,  solely  on  my 
account,  or  at  least  on  account  of  the  beads  and  knick-knacks  I 
had  brought  with  me,  and  divided  very  freely  among  them.  If  they 
did  not  ask  for  any  thing,  they  at  least  wanted  to  show  them- 
selves, so  as  to  give  me  no  excuse  for  not  having  seen  them.  But 
what  pleased  them  most  of  all.  were  some  peacock's  feathers, 
things  they  had  no  idea  of;  and  I  had  to  describe  the  bird  that 
carried  theee  beautiful  feathers  more  than  fifty  times,  and  after 
making  a  drawing  of  it  in  the  sand,  they  all  flocked  round  it, 
chatting  about  in  the  most  lively  manner,  and  with  quick  gesticu- 
lations. 

One  of  the  girls,  a  young,  wild,  beautiful  creature,  of  about 
sixteen,  had  a  most  singular  ornament  upon  her  brow,  consisting 
of  little  round  beads,  cut  out  of  the  knobs  of  the  ripe  pine-apple. 
Throwing  a  sweet  fragrance  around,  it  looked  exceedingly  well 
in  the  nymph's  dark  tresses,  and  her  black  glistening  eyes  show- 
ed that  she  knew  very  well,  at  the  same  time,  how  beautiful  she 


316  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

was.  I  gave  her  some  of  the  peacock's  feathers,  and  she  was 
perfectly  delighted  with  them ;  but  did  not  enjoy  them  long,  for 
a  friend  of  hers,  of  the  same  kind,  I  expect,  as  my  Scotchman 
was  to  the  viceroy — a  long,  thin,  dark-colored  spinster  of  about 
forty  years  at  least — walked  up  to  her,  and  taking  the  feathers 
out  of  her  hands,  without  the  least  resistance  or  remonstrance  from 
the  poor  little  thing,  stuck  them  right  straight  upon  her  own  head, 
into  a  mass  of  tangled  hair,  and  walked  off  with  them,  as  proud 
as  any  old  pea-hen.  As  a  matter  of  course,  I  gave  the  little  girl 
some  other  feathers,  and  some  of  the  nicest  beads  into  the  bargain. 

The  girls  plait  here,  from  the  prepared  stem  of  the  arrow-root, 
some  most  beautiful  head-dresses ;  but  these,  I  expect,  looked  far 
too  heathenish  for  the  refined  taste  of  the  missionaries,  and  some 
of  these  not  only  lent  a  hand  to  save  the  souls,  but  also  shaped 
the  fashions  of  the  wild  fair  sex,  and  taught  them  to  plait  out 
of  these  braids,  which  looked  far  more  brilliant  than  the  finest 
Italian  straw,  some  of  the  old  English  coal-scuttle  bonnets,  which 
gave  the  poor  things  a  most  ludicrous  appearance.  But  in  the 
eyes  of  the  missionaries — bless  their  souls  ! — it  looked  decent  and 
Christian-like ;  and  as  it  was  something  new  for  the  girls,  both 
parties  were  exceedingly  jpleased. 

In  order  to  obtain  some  things  to  take  with  me,  in  remem- 
brance of  the  islands,  I  brought  some  other  articles  adapted  for 
the  men.  The  principal  of  these  was  a  hatchet,  a  tool  very 
much  wanted  among  them,  and  for  which  they  gave  me  a  whole 
piece  of  tapa,  of  I  do  not  know  how  many  yards  long.  For  to- 
bacco and  money  I  also  bought  some  mats,  which  they  plait 
very  nicely  out  of  a  grassy  plant ;  besides  this,  some  of  the  pre- 
pared braidings  and  other  smaller  articles,  but  they  have  very 
few  things  worth  keeping  as  curiosities. 

The  tapa,  however,  deserves  some  nearer  description,  for  the 
way  they  prepare  it  is  as  simple  as  it  is  ingenious.  The  tapa,  a 
cloth  which  served  all  their  purposes  for  dress,  before  they  became 
acquainted  with  Europeans,  consists  of  nothing  but  the  inner 
bark  of  several  trees — among  these,  principally  the  banian  and 
bread-fruit — which  they  beat  together,  and  work  till  they  make 
a  perfectly  tough  and  untearable  dough  of  it.  This  they  lay,  after 
a  certain  time,  upon  a  smoothly-cut  table,  and  commence  beating 
it  out  till  it  spreads  all  over  the  surface  of  the  board  underneath  ; 
beating  and  beating,  side  by  side,  they  make  it  thinner  and  thin- 


MAIAO.  317 

ner,  spreading  it  in  this  way  farther  and  farther  out.  The  tools 
they  use  for  this  are  long  pieces  of  heavy  wood,  scraped  off  to  four 
equal  sides,  the  one  having  broad  and  deep  incisions  longways, 
the  second  smaller  ones,  the  third  finer  ones  still,  and  the  fourth 
the  finest,  all  along  the  wood.  They  often  work  the  dough  out 
in  this  way,  sometimes  into  pieces  of  twenty  or  more  yards  in 
length.  But  this  seems  really  the  only  work  they  ever  do,  ex- 
cept now  and  then  scraping  cocoa-nuts,  which  they  accomplish  in 
the  most  easy  manner  in  a  sitting  posture,  and  put  the  scrapings 
afterward  into  a  long  trough,  which  stands  in  the  sun,  so  that 
the  oil  may  be  melted  out  of  them. 

Even  their  canoes,  which  the  New  Zealanders,  on  the  other 
hand,  cut  and  carve  in  the  most  beautiful  fashion,  are  rough  and 
uncouth  things,  very  narrow,  and  provided  with  an  outrigger — 
two  light  sticks,  secured  upon  the  gunwale  of  the  canoe,  and  pro- 
jecting from  six  to  ten  feet,  where  they  are  crossed  by  another 
stick,  from  four  to  five  inches  thick,  but  also  of  light  wood.  This 
outrigger  prevents,  especially  under  sail,  their  upsetting,  but  also 
makes  the  canoe  cumbersome  and  difficult  to  manage.  The 
Scaux  and  Tuscaroras  of  the  northern  and  equally  stormy  lakes 
would  scorn  to  go  to  sea  in  such  a  machine,  while  they  can  skim 
the  waves  with  their  light  and  swift  bark  canoes ;  but  these 
craft  perfectly  suit  the  rather  indolent  character  of  the  natives  : 
they  are  slow,  it  is  true,  but  they  are  easy  and  safe ;  and  why 
should  they  put  themselves  to  unnecessary  trouble  or  danger 
merely  to  go  a  little  quicker  through  the  water  ? 

Their  huts  are  as  simple  as  their  canoes,  but  at  the  same  time 
most  excellently  suited  to  the  mild  and  warm  climate.  They 
drive  posts  about  four  or  five  feet  apart  into  the  ground,  and  fill 
up  the  interstices  with  thin  bamboo  or  peeled  sticks  at  a  sufficient 
distance  apart  to  let  air  and  light  through  every  where  ;  in  fact, 
the  whole  house  looks  very  much  like  a  bird-cage,  and  is  cover- 
ed with  the  leaves  of  the  pandanus,  which  they  sew  or  fasten 
upon  thin  poles  by  a  thin  strip  of  bark  and  with  a  kind  of  awl 
and  hook  made  of  bone.  Such  a  roof  usually  lasts  between  four 
and  five  years.  The  interior  is  just  as  simple  :  half-a-dozen 
mats  on  the  ground,  a  couple  of  low,  smoothly-carved  stools  used 
by  day  as  seats,  and  at  night  as  pillows,  one  or  two  sailors'  chests 
which  they  are  very  fond  of,  several  calabashes  and  cocoa-nut 
shells,  the  first  to  keep  salt-water  mixed  with  cocoa-nut  milk  in, 


318  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

to  take  with  their  fish  and  bread-fruit,  the  others  to  drink  out  of; 
and  this  constitutes  the  whole  furniture  and  all  the  kitchen  uten- 
sils :  but  below  the  rafters  there  is  sometimes  fastened  a  stray  pad- 
dle or  a  harpoon,  while  a  net  and  a  couple  of  mother-of-pearl  fish- 
hooks for  the  bonitas,  albicores,  and  dolphins,  hang  in  one  corner. 

It  is  a  singular  fact,  however,  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  South 
Seas,  when  the  first  white  men  stepped  upon  their  shores,  knew 
the  art  of  making  nets,  with  exactly  the  same  knots,  and  employ- 
ed the  same  tools  in  the  manufacture  as  the  Europeans.  They 
had  at  that  time,  and  have  now,  the  same  wooden  netting-needle 
sailors  and  fishermen  use  in  our  country. 

I  had  a  chance  of  leaving  this  little  friendly  island  much 
quicker  than  I  thought  at  first,  or,  in  fact,  desired.  A  fine  west- 
erly breeze — a  very  rare  occurrence  in  this  latitude,  where  the 
trades  nearly  constantly  blow  from  the  east — sprung  up,  and 
some  of  the  Indians  intended  to  start  for  Tahiti  in  an  open  boat, 
taking  with  them  some  pigs  and  chickens  to  exchange  for  such 
articles  as  were  wanted  on  the  island  and  could  only  be  procured 
in  the  stores  of  Tapetee.  But  in  spite  of  this,  I  would  have  risk- 
ed the  chance  of  stopping  here  two  or  three  months  longer  before 
another  boat  left,  had  there  been  no  white  man  on  the  island. 
My  Scotchman  got  drunk  again  on  this  day  on  what  little  was 
left  of  the  gin,  and  told  me  quite  confidentially  that  he  had  found 
out  a  way  of  getting,  by  the  help  of  this  boat,  a  small  keg  of 
liquor  on  shore,  without  the  Indians  being  any  the  wiser  for  it.  I 
saw  very  plainly  that  I  could  not  get  away  from  this  gentleman 
if  I  stopped  on  the  island,  and  I  was  tired  of  his  drunken  freaks, 
and  therefore  preferred  taking  advantage  of  the  boat  which  in- 
tended to  start  this  very  evening.  It  was  going  to  try  to  touch 
at  Emao,  and  thence  proceed  to  Tahiti,  giving  me  a  chance  of 
seeing  both  these  islands  ;  and  if  the  wind  held  on  only  twenty- 
four  hours,  we  could  with  all  ease  reach  Emao,  the  distance 
thence  to  Tahiti  only  being  about  fifteen  miles. 

My  host  did  not  seem  to  like  my  sudden  departure,  and  even 
the  viceroy  asked  me  if  I  did  not  feel  pleased  with  his  island ; 
but  as  I  had  made  up  my  mind,  I  was  determined  to  be  one  of 
the  party  in  the  boat,  and  giving  my  host  my  double-barreled 
fowling-piece,  as  a  kind  of  recompense  for  his  hospitality,  though 
he  told  me  he  had  not  expected  any  thing,  and  I  was  perfectly 
welcome,  I  packed  up  my  baggage  again. 


CHAPTER  V. 

FROM   MAIAO    TO   EMAO. 

HAVING  made  a  good  many  presents  to  the  Indians  during  my 
stay,  they  now  brought  provisions  from  every  corner  to  make  me 
some  return,  and  not  let  me  go  empty-handed.  My  Scot  told 
me  they  had  talked  among  themselves  of  my  being  the  most  sin- 
gular white  man  they  had  ever  seen ;  for  all  the  things  I  got 
from  them  I  wanted  to  pay  for,  and  would  not  take  any  thing 
for  all  the  things  I  gave  them,  and  yet  did  not  wish  to  stay  any 
longer  among  them.  The  Scot  being  the  only  interpreter  I  had, 
I  could  not  of  course  tell  them  the  true  reason  of  my  quick  de- 
parture, but  I  divided  what  I  could  spare  of  my  knick-knacks 
among  them,  and  we  started  with  a  roast  pig  which  my  host's 
lady  had  prepared  for  me,  and  baked  bread-fruits,  young  cocoa- 
nuts  and  oranges  more  than  enough  to  last  at  least  forty-eight 
hours,  and  in  twenty-four  we  could  be  on  shore  again. 

However,  I  must  say  first  a  few  words  about  the  Indian  girl 
whom  the  white  man  had  married  ;  she  was  a  beautiful  young 
woman,  with  a  perfectly  European  profile,  the  dark  skin  of  her 
tribe,  her  thick,  long  raven-black  tresses  plaited  up  in  English 
style,  but  she  had  a  club-foot ;  and  my  old  Scotchman  told  me, 
either  as  an  excuse  for  his  selecting  her,  or  else  because  it  was 
really  the  fact,  while  we  were  walking  to  the  beach,  his  wife 
with  us,  that  the  Indian  girls  were  all  too  swift  for  him  ;  and  in 
case  of  some  accident,  "out  of  sight  directly,  so  he  had  chosen 
this  girl,  for  if  he  wanted  at  any  time  to  beat  her,  she  could  not 
run  away  from  him." 

What  a  quantity  of  things  a  man  has  to  look  at  in  choosing  a 
wife  ! 

The  preparations,  in  getting  the  boat  ready,  occupied  us  nearly 
till  evening ;  and  the  breeze  had  by  that  time  become  much 
weaker,  but  the  Indians  said  it  would  freshen  again  during  the 


320  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

night ;  and  putting  my  things  aboard,  and  stepping  the  little 
mast — a  weak  concern  if  we  got  a  good  capful  of  wind — we  took 
our  seats,  and  now  had  to  watch  the  breakers  which  rolled  across 
the  narrow  entrance  at  short  intervals,  and  left  a  smooth  water 
between  each  thundering  wave. 

A  great  many  of  the  Indians  were  standing  on  the  beach, 
watching  our  passage  through  the  channel ;  a  higher  wave  than 
I  had  yet  seen  now  rolled  right  in  to  the  entrance,  agitating  the 
water  even  up  to  where  we  lay.  The  Indians  on  shore  screamed 
something  over  to  us,  and  the  oldest  of  my  three  companions 
quickly  raised  the  sail — another  wave  followed — the  third  in 
quick  succession,  and  when  the  breeze  caught  the  sheet,  our  little 
craft  shot  forward,  seemingly  to  meet  a  rolling  sea,  that  would 
most  certainly  have  filled  us,  but  before  we  reached  it,  it  had 
melted  away,  leaving  at  the  place  where  it  disappeared  a  milk- 
white  and  hissing  foam.  We  shot  over,  and  just  cleared  the  next 
rising  breaker,  which  grew  out,  as  it  were,  from  under  our  keel, 
our  steerer  even  having  to  dodge  away  from  it.  At  the  same 
moment  we  reached  the  deep  water  outside,  while  a  loud  cheer 
from  shore — a  merry  shout  of  joy  that  we  had  passed  the  danger 
— at  once  bade  us  farewell,  the  girls  on  shore  waved  their  ker- 
chiefs, the  cocoa-nut  trees  their  graceful  leaves,  while  we  glided 
out  to  sea  under  a  fresh  and  lively  breeze ;  and  far,  far  away  I 
thought  I  could  yet  hear  the  kind  "  Toranna,  toranna  !"  of  these 
good  people,  and  see  their  slender  forms  as  long  as  they  could 
mark  the  small  boat  on  the  waves. 

The  breeze  was  light  but  steady,  and  the  oldest  of  the  Indians, 
who  was  tattooed  up  to  his  teeth,  held  the  steering-oar,  while 
the  two  others  went  to  work  to  trim  the  boat,  and  get  the  whole 
affair  a  little  ship-shape.  This  done,  one  stretched  himself  out 
very  leisurely  upon  one  of  the  hen-coops,  while  the  other  took 
hold  of  a  dry  piece  of  wood,  chipped  off  a  piece  of  it,  and  began, 
by  rubbing  another  piece  against  it,  to  ignite  the  quickly  blacken- 
ing wood-dust.  I  had  always  thought  this  process  a  very  tedious 
job,  but  the  young  fellow,  throwing  his  whole  energy  into  it,  pro- 
cured fire  in  about  four  or  five  minutes,  and  blowing  it  a  little 
till  the  other  had  twisted  a  small  cigar  out  of  some  tobacco  and 
a  piece  of  banana-leaf,  they  lit  it,  and  each  took  a  few  whiffs,  at 
it  in  turn,  letting  the  kindled  wood  go  out  again.  With  each 
cigar,  which  they  smoked  in  about  two  minutes  among  them, 


FROM  MAIAO  TO  EMAO.  321 

they  set  to  work  again  with  the  two  sticks,  resting  again  in  the 
intervals  upon  the  hen-coops. 

Night  now  set  in,  and  overhauling  my  provisions,  I  made  a 
most  delicious  supper  of  a  piece  of  roasted  pig,  with  lemon-juice, 
some  baked  bread-fruit,  and  the  milk  of  a  cocoa-nut ;  then  rolled 
myself  in  my  serape,  and  soon  fell  sound  asleep,  the  glitering  stars 
shining  out  upon  me  in  their  full  splendor. 

It  might  have  been  two  o'clock  when  I  awoke,  and  found  the 
whole  crew  fast  asleep.  The  old  fellow  and  one  of  the  young- 
sters lay  in  the  bow  of  the  boat,  on  some  pieces  of  tapa  and  other 
things  they  had  taken  with  them,  I  presume  to  trade,  and  the 
third  bent  over  the  steering  oar  which  was  trailing  after  us  in 
the  water,  and  the  sail  flapping  on  the  mast.  This  would  not  do. 
The  breeze  was  not  at  all  brisk,  and  we  could  not  make  much 
headway.  But  drifting  in  such  a  manner  could  only  take  us  back 
with  the  current ;  and  besides  that,  the  sky  looked  exactly  as  if 
a  rattling  breeze  would  soon  blow  over  the  waters. 

But  whereabouts  were  we  ?  Clouds  were  chasing  each  other 
over  the  sky,  and  I  had  to  watch  the  stars  some  time  before  I 
could  find  out  where  north  or  south  was ;  but  I  soon  got  a  glimpse 
of  the  southern  cross ;  and  waking  the  young  fellow  in  the  stern- 
sheets,  and  sending  him  to  the  rest — a  command  he  obeyed  very 
readily — I  took  the  steering-oar,  and  bending  the  line  of  the  sheet 
round  one  of  the  thwarts,  to  have  more  purchase  over  the  sail  in 
case  a  stifTer  breeze  sprung  up,  I  turned  her  head  toward  the  east, 
keeping  the  course,  as  well  as  I  was  able,  without  a  compass. 

The  breeze  gradually  died  away,  but  there  was  a  change  in  the 
atmosphere,  and  I  did  not  like  the  look  of  the  clouds  and  the 
whole  horizon.  Only  too  soon  I  found  that  I  had  not  been  mis- 
taken. Just  about  twelve  o'clock,  it  came  with  a  deep  murmur- 
ing sound,  growling  and  whistling  over  the  water,  the  breeze 
veering  at  the  same  time  more  and  more  round  toward  the  east ; 
but  how  her  head  was  exactly,  I  could  no  longer  tell,  for  thick 
black  clouds  were  spread  over  the  whole  horizon,  and  hid  every 
star  in  the  sky.  "Without  a  compass,  I  could  do  nothing  with 
the  little  craft  but  keep  her  as  close  on  the  wind  as  possible, 
though  I  knew  we  should  drift  at  least  three  points  to  leeward ; 
and  fearing,  at  the  same  time,  the  harder  and  harder  blowing 
breeze  would  injure  our  mast,  I  called  to  the  Indians  to  rise  and  reef 
topsails,  as  we  were  running  about  five  knots  through  the  water. 

o* 


322  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

I  called  and  called,  but  they  did  not  hear  me — they  slept  like 
tops — and  our  little  craft,  bending  more  and  more  over  to  leeward, 
shot  along  with  a  speed  of  which  I  had  not  thought  her  capable. 
Keeping  the  sheet-line  in  my  hand,  and  knowing  the  boat  to  be 
properly  ballasted,  I  had  no  fear  of  an  accident.  In  the  worst 
case,  our  mast — a  most  indifferent  piece  of  timber — would  cer- 
tainly break,  and  the  waves  were  not  yet  high  enough  to  swamp 
us  if  we  drifted  broadside  on  to  a  sea.  Notwithstanding,  I  kept 
calling  the  men,  it  being  rather  a  disagreeable  feeling  to  have  the 
whole  management  of  the  boat,  and  the  wind  rising  higher  and 
higher ;  but  my  voice  proved  too  weak  to  disturb  their  repose,  none 
of  them  stirred  ;  and  giving  it  up  at  last  in  despair — for  I  would 
not  leave  the  oar,  as  the  boat  now  skimmed  the  waves  in  fine 
style — I  kept  her  as  I  had  done  before,  close  on  the  wind,  trust- 
ing the  rest  to  fate  and  fortune. 

But  the  breeze  grew  higher,  and  the  sea  with  it ;  and  what  I 
had  tried  in  vain  for  nearly  half  an  hour,  a  friendly  wave  did  for 
me  in  an  instant.  It  was  the  first  water  we  shipped,  the  boat 
driving  with  perfect  fury  against  the  foaming  sea ;  and  the  old 
Indian,  who  was  lying  in  the  fore  part  of  the  little  craft,  got  the 
whole  benefit  of  it.  Raising  himself  up  quickly  enough,  he  sat 
there  in  the  bow,  looking  rather  astonished  around  him ;  but  a 
second  sea  followed  the  first,  and  the  old  fellow,  who  was  not  slow 
in  comprehending  the  state  of  affairs,  was  up  in  a  minute.  He 
also  lost  no  more  words ;  but  taking  hold  of  the  halliards,  and 
letting  down  the  sheet,  he  kept  stamping  at  the  same  time  upon 
his  comrades,  to  get  them  up  also ;  and  as  soon  as  we  made  no 
more  headway,  I  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  keep  her  head  right 
against  the  sea.  The  old  Indian  seemed  not  to  have  the  least 
notion  of  setting  the  sail  again  as  long  as  there  was  such  a  breeze ; 
and  while  one  bailed  out,  the  other  two  squatted  down  and  looked 
at  the  sky.  But  I  got  them  at  last  to  take  a  reef  in  the  sail  and 
raise  it  again ;  and  the  worst  of  the  squall  having  blown  over, 
we  commenced  going  through  the  water  again  at  the  rate  of  four 
or  five  knots  an  hour. 

What  course  we  steered  I  was  not  able  to  tell,  but  about  an 
hour  afterward  some  parts  of  the  blue  sky  became  visible  again, 
and  the  moon  also  rose  in  the  east,  right  to  windward.  We 
were  running  up  toward  the  north  as  hard  as  we  could,  but 
there  being  no  help  for  it,  I  left  the  steering-oar  again  to  my 


FEOM  MAIAO  TO  EMAO.  323 

old  Indian,  and  rolling  myself  up  in  my  blanket,  soon  fell  fast 
asleep. 

At  daybreak  next  morning,  we  saw  the  high  and  rough  out- 
lines of  Emao — but  far,  far  off  to  windward  ;  and  not  to  be  driven 
away  to  the  north,  we  tacked,  and  apparently  drew  nearer  to 
land  ;  but  drifting,  of  course,  to  leeward,  as  all  whale-boats  do 
close  on  a  wind,  we  could  hardly  do  much  more  than  hold  our 
own.  I  therefore  took  the  patience  of  the  Indians  for  a  pattern, 
who,  seeing  no  chance  of  doing  any  good  by  fretting  themselves 
unnecessarily,  took  to  their  two  sticks  again,  rubbed  fire,  and 
smoked  little  bits  of  cigars. 

My  breakfast  this  morning  was  as  frugal  as  my  supper  last 
night ;  and  watching  the  mountains  before  us,  which  would  not 
rise  a  single  inch  farther  out  of  the  water,  I  did  like  the  Indians, 
and  stretching  myself  at  full  length  in  the  boat,  took  out  a  little 
volume  of  Moore's  "Lalla  Rookh" — a  book  that  had  been  my 
companion  through  the  Pampas,  over  the  Cordilleras,  and  in  the 
mines  of  California — and  was  soon  lost  in  the  Fire-Worshipers. 
We  should  have  to  be  out  a  day  longer  on  the  water,  that  was 
all,  and  time  would  soon  pass.  Toward  evening,  a  stronger 
breeze  would  most  certainly  rise. 

It  was  Monday,  the  27th  of  January,  1851,  and  the  whole 
day  the  wind  blew  steadily  from  the  east,  while  we  tacked  and 
tacked  without  nearing  the  land,  as  it  seemed,  an  inch.  The 
mountains  of  Emao  displayed  no  other  outline,  and  even  the  hill 
on  the  little  island  we  had  left  was  yet  visible  upon  the  water. 

The  Indians,  in  the  mean  time,  rubbed  their  sticks  to  get  fire, 
smoked  their  cigars,  and  slept,  one  alternately  taking  the  steer- 
ing-oar, and  all  of  them  constantly  tapping  cocoa-nuts,  and 
drinking  the  milk,  just  as  they  used  to  do  on  shore,  without 
troubling  their  heads  whether  they  would  last  or  not.  For  the 
first  time,  I  now  felt  uneasy  whether  we  could  reach  the  other 
shore  as  comfortably  with  our  provisions  as  we  had  expected. 

The  day  passed  slowly,  and  with  the  setting  sun  the  breeze 
became  fresher,  but  still  from  the  east.  The  common  trade- 
winds  had  set  in,  and  there  was  no  possibility  of  reaching  the 
windward  islands  with  that  breeze.  But,  leaving  the  manage- 
ment of  our  little  vessel  entirely  to  the  natives,  I  laid  myself 
down  again  at  dark,  and  soon  fell  asleep.  By  the  southern 
cross  which  I  could  see,  bright  and  glittering  in  the  heavens, 


324  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WOULD. 

when  I  awoke,  it  might  have  been  midnight,  and  I  lay  awhile 
in  a  state  of  half-dream,  rocked  by  the  soft  and  undulating  mo- 
tion of  the  waves.  The  air  was  cool  and  balmy,  and  I  could 
feel  the  light  breeze,  which  was  just  strong  enough  to  fill  our 
sail,  fanning  my  face.  I  suddenly  heard  a'blowing  and  splashing 
in  the  water.  Being  only  half  awake,  I  thought  I  heard  a 
steamer  coming,  and  wondered  where  it  came  from ;  when  all 
at  once  the  old  Indian  jumped  up  in  the  boat,  and  catching  hold 
of  a  paddle  or  stick,  which  was  lying  beside  him,  set  to  scream- 
ing and  striking  the  gunwale  of  the  boat  and  the  water  as  hard 
and  as  loud  as  he  could.  The  two  others,  roused  by  the  dread- 
ful noise,  soon  followed  his  example ;  and  I  had  raised  myself, 
quite  astonished,  on  my  right  elbow,  to  see  what  in  the  name  of 
common  sense  was  the  matter,  when  I  heard  the  puffing  and 
blowing  noise  of  a  whole  shoal  of  black-fish  right  close  upon  us  ; 
and  on  looking  quickly  round,  I  found  they  were  coming  against 
us  in  a  perfect  swarm,  at  the  same  time  lifting  their  dark,  heavy 
bodies  half  out  of  the  water,  rolling,  and  splashing,  and  groaning, 
as  it  were,  in  perfect  transports  of  pleasure.  But  it  was,  in  fact, 
no  pleasure  for  us.  The  fish  came  as  straight  up  to  us  as  they 
could  swim  ;  and  if  one  of  those  heavy  fellows  only  touched  our 
boat,  we  were  lost.  The  Indians  knew  this  very  well ;  and 
though  so  indolent  and  lazy  at  all  other  times,  this  night  they 
worked  their  arms  and  voices  in  a  most  lively  and  industrious 
manner,  and  the  result  answered  their  expectations.  The  fish, 
which  could  not  help  hearing  the  dreadful  noise,  moved  barely 
ten  yards  from  the  boat,  partly  to  the  right  and  partly  to  the 
left ;  and  there  must  have  been  several  hundreds  of  them,  puffing 
as  they  passed  us  like  so  many  steam-engines,  and  only  one  of 
them  seemed  determined  on  seeing  exactly  who  and  where  we 
were.  His  black  head,  more  than  four  feet  square,  rose  up  not 
much  farther  than  arm's  length  on  our  starboard  bow,  going 
about  as  fast  through  the  water  as  the  boat,  and  diving  again, 
as  if  he  was  going  to  rub  his  nose  against  the  gunwale,  which 
he  just  missed,  and  throwing  the  water  he  spouted  or  squirted 
up,  nearly  upon  us ;  while  the  boat  moved  a  little  way  ahead, 
he  came  up  again  on  the  other  side,  and  all  our  danger  was 
passed. 

The  old  Indian  had  taken  the  steering-oar  again,  and  we  left 
the  fish  far  behind.     But  looking  round  myself  now  for  the  course 


FROM  MAIAO  TO  EMAO.  325 

we  were  steering,  I  found,  rather  to  my  astonishment,  the  south- 
ern cross  on  our  larboard  side,  and  the  old  fellow  keeping  her 
head,  perfectly  well  satisfied  with  himself,  as  it  seemed,  close  on 
the  wind,  toward  the  northwest.  It  being  perfectly  dark,  and 
the  distant  mountains  of  Emao,  of  course,  out  of  sight,  we  had 
no  other  way  of  steering  but  by  the  stars  ;  and  as  they  appeared 
in  full  brightness  in  the  sky,  we  should  have  had  not  the  least 
difficulty  about  it.  But  my  old  pilot  seemed  to  think  otherwise, 
though  I  showed  him  the  southern  cross  on  one  side,  and  the  two 
upper  stars  of  the  bear  on  the  horizon,  giving  him  at  the  same 
time  the  direction  in  which  Emao  and  Tahiti  lay  ;  but  he  shook 
his  head  and  told  me  as  far  as  I  could  make  out,  that  he  was 
perfectly  right ;  and  when  I  would  not  be  satisfied,  he  called  up 
the  others,  and  held  a  kind  of  council  with  them.  They  kept 
talking  for  some  time,  and  looking  at  the  different  stars,  the  re- 
sult being  in  favor  of  the  old  Indian ;  then,  as  if  they  had  troubled 
their  heads  enough  about  such  an  indifferent  subject,  they  lay 
down  to  sleep  again,  while  the  steersman  kept  her  steady,  as  he 
had  done  before,  toward  the  northwest. 

I  soon  found  that  I  could  do  nothing  by  remonstrating ;  and  as 
I  had  not  the  least  idea  of  looking  in  that  direction  for  a  passage 
just  now,  I  got  up,  without  saying  another  word,  carried  the 
sheet  over  to  starboard,  and  asked  the  Indian  to  let  me  have  the 
steering-oar.  It  requires  the  indifference  of  a  native  to  do  it  as 
unconcernedly  as  he  did  :  without  giving  even  a  look  to  the 
direction  I  intended  to  take,  he  left  me  in  the  stern-sheets,  and 
raising  a  piece  of  tapa  which  he  had  been  sitting  on,  over  his 
head,  was  soon  as  fast  asleep  as  the  rest. 

Dawn,  next  day,  showed  I  had  been  right,  for  the  breeze  had 
become  better,  and  the  southern  point  of  Tahiti,  with  Emao 
more  to  our  left,  lay  exactly  before  the  cut-water  of  our  boat, 
though  yet  many  a  long  mile  distant.  We  had  a  fine  breeze  at 
the  time  ;  and  if  it  had  lasted,  we  could  have  reached  Emao, 
the  nearest  island,  that  same  night.  And  it  was  high  time  we 
did  so  too,  for  our  coca-nuts  were  nearly  gone  ;  and,  beyond  what 
they  furnished,  Ave  had  not  a  single  drop  of  water  in  the  boat. 
The  pigs  and  chickens  had  nothing  either  to  eat  or  drink,  and 
there  was,  in  fact,  no  way  of  feeding  or  watering  them ;  and 
how  could  they  stand  it  much  longer  ?  But,  in  spite  of  this,  my 
worst  fears  were  realized  :  with  the  rising  sun,  the  breeze  became 


326  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

weaker  and  weaker,  till  our  sail  hung  listlessly  on  the  mast,  and 
our  little  craft  lay  still  and  motionless  on  the  smooth,  mirror-like 
surface  of  the  wide  and  boundless  ocean.  And  there  we  were, 
with  the  strong  equatorial  current  right  against  us,  the  sun  at 
mid-day  exactly  over  our  heads,  with  not  a  drop  of  water  in  the 
boat,  and  not  a  breeze  stirring  upon  the  dazzling  surface  of  the 
slowly-swelling  ocean  to  fan  our  burning  brows ;  and  if  we 
staid  there  without  making  an  attempt  to  get  out  of  our  difficul- 
ty, we  should  drift  to  leeward,  Lord  knows  where. 

We  had  no  real  oars,  nothing  but  three  paddles,  cut  roughly 
enough  out  of  a  bread-fruit  tree,  which  were  very  well  adapted 
to  drive  one  of  their  light  canoes  through  the  water,  but  not  a 
heavy  loaded  whale-boat.  But  what  could  we  do  ?  So,  taking 
hold  of  the  paddles — and  a  most  incommodious  seat  we  had,  to 
work  in  a  whale-boat  with  them — we  went  at  it,  with  a  hope 
that  a  breeze  would  spring  up  again  at  sunset ;  while  the  In- 
dians, instead  of  laying  their  weight  on  the  paddles,  used  them 
as  if  they  had  been  made  of  glass,  and  were  liable  to  break  at 
any  moment.  We  did  not  go  faster  than  two  knots  and  a  half 
through  the  water,  the  current  against  us  being  more  than  a  mile. 

On  we  went,  slowly  and  tediously,  not  a  breath  of  wind  stir- 
ring the  mirror-like  surface  of  the  sea,  while  the  sun  rose  higher 
and  higher ;  and  at  nine  o'clock  we  drank  our  last  cocoa-nut, 
without  quenching  our  thirst  in  the  least :  it  being  a  fact  well 
known  to  all  who  have  suffered  thus,  that  people  are  never  more 
eager  for  something  to  eat  or  drink  than  at  the  moment  when 
they  know  they  can  not  get  it.  The  land  at  the  same  time,  was 
apparently  as  far  off  as  ever,  and  we  could  not  see  until  mid-day 
that  we  had  made  any  headway.  As  the  sun  was  exactly  ver- 
tical, the  heat  was  nearly  suffocating,  and  the  skin  of  my  neck 
and  arms  blistered,  as  if  I  had  exposed  it  to  a  fire.  But  we 
worked  on  incessantly,  some  oranges  being  the  only  refreshment 
left,  of  which  we  had  yet  a  small  basket  full,  though  my  Indians 
ate  away  at  them,  as  if  they  had  been  under  a  contract  to  finish 
them  before  dinner. 

Toward  evening  the  heat  became  so  oppressive  that  I  could 
hardly  breathe,  and  even  the  Indians  laid  down  their  paddles 
twice,  and  looked  around  in  despair ;  but  they  knew  perfectly 
well  that  we  had  to  pull  for  our  lives,  and  in  such  a  case  even 
South  Sea  Indians  can  work. 


FROM  MAIAO  TO  EMAO.  327 

We  had  one  water-melon  left,  but  it  was  as  warm  as  the  air, 
and  could  do  us  very  little  good  ;  our  lips  were  parched,  and  the 
juice  of  the  fruit  evaporated  on  them  as  if  they  had  been  hot 
stones. 

The  sun  went  down  in  the  west,  like  a  ball  of  fire,  but  no 
breeze  rose  with  the  setting-in  of  night ;  in  fact,  the  air  seemed 
to  grow  more  sultry  when  the  light  of  day  faded  away.  But  we 
had  drawn  so  near  the  island,  by  hard  work,  as  to  distinguish  at 
least  in  the  clear  and  starry  night  the  dark  shadow  of  the  mount- 
ains before  us,  and  were  certain  by  this  of  keeping  a  straight 
course.  And  we  had  to  pull  the  whole  night,  the  Indians  get- 
ting so  sleepy  and  tired  that  the  short  paddles  several  times  slip- 
ped out  of  their  hands,  and  compelled  us  to  pull  back  and  pick 
them  up.  It  can  not  be  supposed  that  they  did  much  in  driving 
the  boat  forward,  and  I  paddled  that  whole  night,  without  taking 
a  single  minute's  rest,  as  hard  as  I  could,  while  the  old  Indian 
steered ;  but  I  had  no  other  chance,  though  it  was  very  like  being 
on  a  treadmill. 

At  last — and  I  really  thought  that  night,  would  never  end, 
while  the  southern  cross  turned  as  slowly  as  if  it  would  never 
change  its  position — the  morning-star  rose ;  the  cross  stood  per- 
fectly upright,  and  far  in  the  east  day  broke  ;  nature  gained  new 
life  with  the  day-star,  and  a  soft  and  freshening  breeze  stole  over 
the  water,  filling  our  sail,  and  our  souls  with  new  hope  and  joy. 
Hardly  had  we  set  the  sail,  when  my  three  Indians  turned  over 
like  dead  men,  leaving  the  management  of  the  little  craft  entirely 
to  the  stranger.  But  I  did  not  blame  them  for  it ;  for  nearly 
twenty-four  hours  we  had  toiled,  paddling  twenty  of  them  inces- 
santly, without  the  least  shade,  in  a  heat  enough  in  itself  to  de- 
stroy or  shake  at  least  any  indifferent  constitution  ;  so  I  did  not 
say  a  word,  but  taking  the  steering-oar,  kept  the  head  of  our  little 
craft  toward  the  dark,  towering  cliffs  of  Emao ;  and  I  could 
already  distinguish  the  low  land  stretching  out  on  both  sides,  a 
certain  sign  how  much  we  had  approached  the  shore,  and  how 
soon  we  should  reach  it,  if  this  breeze  continued. 

A  parching  thirst  tormented  me.  All  our  oranges  had  been 
eaten  several  hours  before,  not  even  a  lemon  was  left ;  and  though 
by  throwing  salt-water  over  my  head,  and  washing  my  blistered 
face  and  neck  with  it,  I  cooled  myself  a  little,  still  it  was  not 
enough  ;  and  the  clear  water,  rippled  by  the  light  breeze,  looked 


326  JOURNEY  HOUND  THE  WORLD. 

weaker  and  weaker,  till  our  sail  hung  listlessly  on  the  mast,  and 
our  little  craft  lay  still  and  motionless  on  the  smooth,  mirror-like 
surface  of  the  wide  and  boundless  ocean.  And  there  we  were, 
with  the  strong  equatorial  current  right  against  us,  the  sun  at 
mid-day  exactly  over  our  heads,  with  not  a  drop  of  water  in  the 
hoat,  and  not  a  breeze  stirring  upon  the  dazzling  surface  of  the 
slowly-swelling  ocean  to  fan  our  burning  brows ;  and  if  we 
staid  there  without  making  an  attempt  to  get  out  of  our  difficul- 
ty, we  should  drift  to  leeward,  Lord  knows  where. 

We  had  no  real  oars,  nothing  but  three  paddles,  cut  roughly 
enough  out  of  a  bread-fruit  tree,  which  were  very  well  adapted 
to  drive  one  of  their  light  canoes  through  the  water,  but  not  a 
heavy  loaded  whale-boat.  But  what  could  we  do  ?  So,  taking 
hold  of  the  paddles — and  a  most  incommodious  seat  we  had,  to 
work  in  a  whale-boat  with  them — we  went  at  it,  with  a  hope 
that  a  breeze  would  spring  up  again  at  sunset ;  while  the  In- 
dians, instead  of  laying  their  weight  on  the  paddles,  used  them 
as  if  they  had  been  made  of  glass,  and  were  liable  to  break  at 
any  moment.  We  did  not  go  faster  than  two  knots  and  a  half 
through  the  water,  the  current  against  us  being  more  than  a  mile. 

On  we  went,  slowly  and  tediously,  not  a  breath  of  wind  stir- 
ring the  mirror-like  surface  of  the  sea,  while  the  sun  rose  higher 
and  higher ;  and  at  nine  o'clock  we  drank  our  last  cocoa-nut, 
without  quenching  our  thirst  in  the  least :  it  being  a  fact  well 
known  to  all  who  have  suffered  thus,  that  people  are  never  more 
eager  for  something  to  eat  or  drink  than  at  the  moment  when 
they  know  they  can  not  get  it.  The  land  at  the  same  time,  was 
apparently  as  far  off  as  ever,  and  we  could  not  see  until  mid-day 
that  we  had  made  any  headway.  As  the  sun  was  exactly  ver- 
tical, the  heat  was  nearly  suffocating,  and  the  skin  of  my  neck 
and  arms  blistered,  as  if  I  had  exposed  it  to  a  fire.  But  we 
worked  on  incessantly,  some  oranges  being  the  only  refreshment 
left,  of  which  we  had  yet  a  small  basket  full,  though  my  Indians 
ate  away  at  them,  as  if  they  had  been  under  a  contract  to  finish 
them  before  dinner. 

Toward  evening  the  heat  became  so  oppressive  that  I  could 
hardly  breathe,  and  even  the  Indians  laid  down  their  paddles 
twice,  and  looked  around  in  despair ;  but  they  knew  perfectly 
well  that  we  had  to  pull  for  our  lives,  and  in  such  a  case  even 
South  Sea  Indians  can  work. 


FROM  MAIAO  TO  EMAO.  327 

We  had  one  water-melon  left,  but  it  was  as  warm  as  the  air, 
and  could  do  us  very  little  good  ;  our  lips  were  parched,  and  the 
juice  of  the  fruit  evaporated  on  them  as  if  they  had  been  hot 
stones. 

The  sun  went  down  in  the  west,  like  a  ball  of  fire,  but  no 
breeze  rose  with  the  setting-in  of  night ;  in  fact,  the  air  seemed 
to  grow  more  sultry  when  the  light  of  day  faded  away.  But  we 
had  drawn  so  near  the  island,  by  hard  work,  as  to  distinguish  at 
least  in  the  clear  and  starry  night  the  dark  shadow  of  the  mount- 
ains before  us,  and  were  certain  by  this  of  keeping  a  straight 
course.  And  we  had  to  pull  the  whole  night,  the  Indians  get- 
ting so  sleepy  and  tired  that  the  short  paddles  several  times  slip- 
ped out  of  their  hands,  and  compelled  us  to  pull  back  and  pick 
them  up.  It  can  not  be  supposed  that  they  did  much  in  driving 
the  boat  forward,  and  I  paddled  that  whole  night,  without  taking 
a  single  minute's  rest,  as  hard  as  I  could,  while  the  old  Indian 
steered ;  but  I  had  no  other  chance,  though  it  was  very  like  being 
on  a  treadmill. 

At  last — and  I  really  thought  that  night,  would  never  end, 
while  the  southern  cross  turned  as  slowly  as  if  it  would  never 
change  its  position — the  morning-star  rose ;  the  cross  stood  per- 
fectly upright,  and  far  in  the  east  day  broke  ;  nature  gained  new 
life  with  the  day-star,  and  a  soft  and  freshening  breeze  stole  over 
the  water,  filling  our  sail,  and  our  souls  with  new  hope  and  joy. 
Hardly  had  we  set  the  sail,  when  my  three  Indians  turned  over 
like  dead  men,  leaving  the  management  of  the  little  craft  entirely 
to  the  stranger.  But  I  did  not  blame  them  for  it ;  for  nearly 
twenty-four  hours  we  had  toiled,  paddling  twenty  of  them  inces- 
santly, without  the  least  shade,  in  a  heat  enough  in  itself  to  de- 
stroy or  shake  at  least  any  indifferent  constitution  ;  so  I  did  not 
say  a  word,  but  taking  the  steering-oar,  kept  the  head  of  our  little 
craft  toward  the  dark,  towering  cliffs  of  Emao ;  and  I  could 
already  distinguish  the  low  land  stretching  out  on  both  sides,  a 
certain  sign  how  much  we  had  approached  the  shore,  and  how 
soon  we  should  reach  it,  if  this  breeze  continued. 

A  parching  thirst  tormented  me.  All  our  oranges  had  been 
eaten  several  hours  before,  not  even  a  lemon  was  left ;  and  though 
by  throwing  salt-water  over  my  head,  and  washing  my  blistered 
face  and  neck  with  it,  I  cooled  myself  a  little,  still  it  was  not 
enough  ;  and  the  clear  water,  rippled  by  the  light  breeze,  looked 


328  JOURNEY   ROUND   THE  WORLD. 

so  tempting,  that  I  at  last  took  a  cocoa-nut  shell,  and  drank  a 
good  long  draught — it  was  dreadful.  At  the  moment  it  passed 
my  lips,  it  seemed  refreshing,  but  the  next  second  I  felt  as  if  I 
had  swallowed  dry  salt  itself,  and  had  to  chew  nearly  a  whole 
raw  bread-fruit,  only  to  get  the  suffocating  taste  from  my  lips  and 
tongue,  though  I  could  not  hinder  it  from  nearly  turning  my 
stomach  with  its  nauseous  bitterness.  My  thirst  after  this  only 
became  more  parching,  and  I  thought  at  the  time  that  I  should 
most  certainly  die  if  I  had  to  stand  such  a  thirst  two  hours  longer ; 
but  that  little  word  must,  works  like  a  perfect  charm  upon  us. 
The  breeze  died  away  after  about  half  an  hour's  sail,  and  I  had 
to  wake  my  Indians  again  for  another  spell  at  the  paddles — still 
alive,  though  with  nothing  to  drink. 

I  tried  to  call  them,  but  I  could  not  utter  a  loud  word,  while 
even  a  trumpet,  I  really  believe,  would  not  have  roused  the  sleepers. 
Leaving  my  oar  then,  I  went  up  to  them,  and  shaking  them  with 
all  my  might,  handed  each  of  them  a  paddle,  by  way  of  introduc- 
tion. They  had  no  idea  of  getting  to  work  so  quickly  ;  but  seeing 
they  could  not  sleep  any  longer,  and  hunting  about  among  their 
odd  pieces  of  wood,  they  took  two  of  them,  and  actually  com- 
menced rubbing  fire  again  for  a  quiet  smoke  first.  We  were  los- 
ing time  in  a  most  unpardonable  manner,  for  every  minute  we 
did  not  pull,  the  current  took  us  back,  and  our  hope  of  getting  a 
drink  of  water  was  deferred — the  greatest  bliss  I  thought  imagin- 
able at  that  moment.  Taking  out,  therefore,  tinder,  firestone,  and 
steel,  which  I  had  not  shown  them  yet,  or  they  would  have  done 
nothing  else  but  strike  fire,  and  smoke,  I  pleased  them  not  a  little 
by  the  quick  way  I  ignited  the  tinder ;  they  then  took  a  few 
whiffs  at  their  cigars,  and  at  it  we  went  again  with  the  paddles, 
as  hard  as  we  could  for  the  coast  now  lay  near,  and  we  could 
already  distinguish  the  breakers. 

About  nine  o'clock  we  reached  the  reefs,  and  running  through 
a  small  channel,  opposite  a  beautiful  little  bay,  with  waving 
cocoa-nut  trees  and  shady  groves  of  oranges  and  bananas,  out  of 
which  the  light  roofs  of  the  Indian  huts  were  just  visible,  we 
entered  the  smooth  inside  sheet  of  water,  while  the  steep  and 
rugged  mountains  of  Emao,  running  up  in  the  most  fantastic 
shapes  several  thousand  feet  above  the  surface  of  the  sea,  and 
wooded  or  covered  with  the  most  luxurious  vegetation  up  to  the 
very  top  of  the  sharpest  points,  lay  rather  above  than  beside  us. 


FROM  MAIAO  TO  EMAO.  329 

Several  canoes  were  gliding  over  the  lovely  little  bay,  which, 
with  the  breakers  roaring  over  the  reefs,  along  whose  inner  edge 
we  ran,  would  have  claimed  my  whole  attention  at  any  other 
time,  but  now  I  had  no  other  thoughts  but  of  water ;  my  eyes 
wandered  over  the  splendid  landscape,  but  they  were  not  search- 
ing for  the  beauties  of  the  shady  groves  and  the  perfect  tints  of 
the  forest,  but  for  juicy  fruit-trees  and  the  lowest  dell,  as  the  like- 
liest to  hold  fresh-water ;  my  tongue  clove  to  the  roof  of  my 
mouth,  and  I  could  hardly  breathe. 

Close  under  shore  we  got  another  light  breeze,  not  enough  to 
ruffle  the  surface  of  the  water,  but  just  sufficient  to  drive  our  lit- 
tle craft  slowly  along  the  shore.  Tired  as  the  Indians  were,  they 
had  no  idea  of  pulling,  as  long  as  we  only  moved  forward  ;  and 
my  old  Indian  taking  the  steering-oar  again,  I  bent  overboard, 
looking  listlessly  down  upon  the  green  ridges  of  coral,  which  lay 
just  discernible,  deep,  deep  below  us.  Suddenly  they  rose  higher 
and  higher,  the  bottom  became  shallower ;  and  never  in  my  life 
shall  I  forget  the  spectacle  that  lay  the  next  moment  unfolded, 
as  if  by  drawing  up  a  curtain,  before  my  eyes.  With  lightning 
speed  all  other  thoughts  were  forgotten,  even  the  burning  thirst, 
nothing  could  have  quenched  before,  and  the  mysterious  deep  lay 
expanded  before  my  eyes,  like  a  newly-discovered  world. 

Far,  far  from  out  the  bluish  bottom  rose  the  knotted  and 
gnarled  limbs  of  the  coral-tree,  wide  forests  and  shady  valleys, 
steep  ravines  and  gentle  slopes,  pastures  and  plains  presented 
themselves,  as  if  summoned  from  night  and  darkness  by  the 
magic  wand  of  some  a]l-powerful  fairy.  There,  upon  that  steep 
and  towering  rock,  overlooking  the  watery  landscape  below,  stood 
a  strange  old  castle,  with  turrets  and  battlements,  large  palm- 
trees  waved  above  its  loftiest  towers,  and  on  the  other  side  of  it 
a  wide  and  gloomy  plain  lay  extended ;  trees  and  logs  lying 
across  one  another  in  wild  disorder,  as  if  a  hurricane  had  stormed 
through  a  pine  forest,  hurling  down  every  thing  before  it  that 
offered  resistance  to  its  impetuous  sway. 

Over  it  we  passed.  Far,  far  below,  I  saw  the  deep  blue  sea, 
and  countless  small  and  thickly  wooded  isles  rising  from  out  of 
it ;  and,  as  if  with  the  touch  of  the  magic  wand,  the  picture 
again  acquired  life.  Thousands  and  thousands  of  tiny  fish  dived 
out  from  the  sombre  shade  of  the  coral  thickets.  A  dark  tree, 
covered  with  glittering  white  fruits,  revealed  a  perfect  multitude 


330  JOURNEY  BOUND  THE  WORLD. 

of  brilliant  sky-blue  little  dolphins,  and  silvery  carp,  none  of  them 
hardly  longer  than  a  finger ;  and  from  the  thickets,  which  looked 
like  monstrous  heaps  of  piled-up  antlers,  they  came,  shooting  back- 
ward and  forward,  and  varying  their  hues  with  every  dart  they 
made  across  the  opening.  Ha !  did  you  see  that  large  brown 
pike,  striped  with  gold  and  azure,  at  least  ten  inches  long,  which 
showed  itself  just  above  the  dark  and  singularly  forked  bushes  ? 
Hui !  how  the  little  silver  and  sky-blue  glittering  crowd,  at  the 
sight  of  that  dreadful  monster,  rushed  away  back  into  their  lurk- 
ing-holes, shooting  up  and  down  as  busily  as  bees  through  the 
filagree  passages  of  their  coral  caves. 

Over  it  all  the  boat  passed,  and  the  landscape  changed  again. 
As  in  a  regularly-built  town,  at  nearly  equal  distances  from  one 
another,  lay  small  spots,  overgrown  and  shaded  by  thick  bushy 
groves,  and  before  each  of  them  a  wild  shoal  of  tiny,  naughty, 
careless  fish  chased  merrily  up  and  down  the  streets,  like  children 
carefully  watched  by  their  attentive  parents.  Close  up  to  the 
boat  the  little  daring  creatures  came,  to  examine  the  dark  mon- 
ster above  them  ;  they  ran  into  neighbors'  houses,  as  if  they  had 
been  their  own  homes,  and  played  thousands  of  pranks  together. 

Farther  on  was  the  school-house.  As  the  single  habitations  a 
little  while  ago  had  collected  the  single  families,  easily  recognized 
by  their  different  and  sharply-marked  colors,  so  they  all  united 
here  upon  an  open  space,  surrounded  by  large  halls.  Mr.  White- 
scale's  eldest  son  was  flirting  with  a  little  gaudily  dressed  blue 
fish,  most  certainly  a  neighbor's  daughter ;  and  two  little  girls 
were  following  them,  teasing  and  bantering  the  couple,  and  run- 
ning back  and  telling  the  others,  when  suddenly  some  signal 
must  have  been  given  which  our  coarser  senses  could  not  distin- 
guish, and  as  swift  as  lightning  they  all  collected  in  a  wild  con- 
fusion of  colors  before  the  hall,  forming  a  semi-circle,  and  then 
shooting  aloft  like  single  rays  from  out  one  common  centre.  But 
they  had  scarcely  reached  the  summit  of  their  tallest  coral-trees 
when  they  turned  back  again  as  suddenly  as  they  came,  and 
met,  only  a  few  seconds  afterward,  upon  exactly  the  same  spot 
whence  they  had  started  from. 

A  single  battalion  was  now  sent  away  to  the  right  wing,  then 
another  to  the  left,  and  then,  as  if  a  trumpet  had  been  blown  to 
mark  the  time,  all  the  different  colors  separated  again — even 
young  White-scale  leaving  his  beloved — and  the  white  and  yel- 


FROM  MAIAO  TO  EMAO.  331 

low  little  fish  shot  like  so  many  glittering,  dazzling  rays  away, 
under  and  alongside  our  boat,  while  the  blue  and  striped  ones 
turned  off  to  the  left  to  reconnoitre,  as  it  seemed,  a  long  low 
chain  of  mountains,  that  jutted  out  from  the  larger  continent. 

Suddenly  the  water  deepened  again ;  the  breeze  freshened, 
ruffling  the  surface.  Like  a  vail  it  stretched  above  the  fairy- 
land ;  and  as  if  awaking  from  a  dream  I  lifted  my  head — and  I 
dreamt  on  ;  for  we  were  gliding  along  close  under  the  beautiful 
shore,  beneath  the  whispering  leaves  of  the  royal  palm-trees, 
quickly,  and  without  a  sound,  save  the  low  rippling  of  our  bow 
through  the  clear  sheet  of  water ;  and  amid  the  dark  groves  of 
oranges  and  guaiavas,  the  bright-green  bananas  shook  their 
broad  and  fluttering  leaves,  shading  with  the  waving  tassels  of 
the  casuarinas,  the  low  and  peaceful  huts  of  the  children  of  the 
soil. 

Was  not  that  the  dream  of  my  youth,  growing  to  reality  here, 
in  all  the  light  and  splendor  of  a  sunny  morning  ?  Hunger  and 
thirst,  past  dangers  and  hardships,  were  forgotten,  and  I  felt  only 
the  happiness,  the  bliss  of  this  one  exquisite  moment ! 


CHAPTER  VI. 

EMAO. 

SUDDENLY  turning  round  a  sharp  point  of  land,  we  saw  to  our 
left  a  deep  shady  valley,  and  a  wild  mountain  stream  rushing 
over  many  colored  shells  and  gravel  through  a  beautiful  grove 
of  gracefully  waving  and  fruit-covered  cocoa-nut  trees.  Into  this 
little  bay  we  turned,  and  none  of  us  thinking  at  this  moment  of 
running  the  boat  up  to  a  landing-place,  the  old  Indian  steered 
her,  as  a  matter  of  course,  directly  into  the  little  streamlet  of  fresh 
water,  and  we  all  four  jumped  overboard  immediately,  drinking 
long,  long  draughts  of  the  sweet,  cool,  and  long-absent  beverage. 

My  old  Indian  had  already  told  me  this  morning,  that  there 
was  a  missionary,  or  mi-to-na-re,  as  he  spoke  the  word — for  all 
these  natives  have  great  difficulty  in  pronouncing  two  consecutive 
consonants  in  one  syllable — living  in  this  little  bay,  and  I  thought 
of  course  it  must  be  an  Englishman  or  Frenchman.  But  jump- 
ing ashore,  and  walking  up  to  the  nearest  rather  European-look- 
ing house,  built  of  logs  and  with  doors  and  windows  (though  the 
latter  were  of  course  unglazed),  I  found  a  whole  crowd  of  young 
women  and  girls,  and  in  the  veranda  of  the  building  itself  a 
little  fat  and  homely-looking  native,  in  a  white  cotton-shirt  and 
light  striped  trowsers,  who  seemed  to  rne  at  first  sight  to  possess 
some  authority.  As  I  did  not  remark  a  white  man,  or  any  signs 
of  one,  I  turned  at  last  toward  this  worthy  individual,  suspecting 
he  could  speak  a  little  English,  or  something  else  at  least,  besides 
his  own  native  tongue.  And  I  was  not  mistaken ;  his  "  gu 
morni,"  which  I  translated  off-hand  into  "  good-morning,"  show- 
ed plainly  I  was  right ;  and  offering  me  his  hand  when  I  ap- 
proached the  house — and  I  really  did  not  look  very  respectable — 
he  shook  it  cordially,  and  offered  me  a  seat  without  farther  cere- 
mony. 

Now  I  must  tell  the  reader  first,  to  avoid  any  mistake,  that  all 
the  inhabitants  of  these  isles — be  they  whites  or  Indians — think 


EMAO.  333 

each  European,  or  rather  each  white  man  who  steps  upon  their 
shores,  let  him  say  whatever  he  pleases  to  the  contrary,  a  sailor 
who  has  escaped  from  some  whale-ship ;  and  the  only  politeness 
they  show  him  in  this  respect,  will  be  to  ask  him  if  he  has  been 
before  the  mast,  or  boat-steerer.  Every  assurance  to  the  contrary 
is  perfectly  useless,  for  they  most  certainly  know  better ;  and  if 
you  won't  give  up,  and  maintain  your  point,  they  will  shake 
their  heads  and  smile,  as  if  they  were  going  to  say:  "But 
what's  the  use  of  denying  it  now  ?  The  ship  is  gone,  and  nobody 
is  going  to  take  you  here." 

Thus  the  little  Indian  asked  me  with  one  of  his  most  benevo- 
lent smiles,  and  with  a  quick  and  funny  wink  of  his  left  eye  : 
"  Wad  ship  ?"  to  which  I  answered,  not  acquainted  with  all  these 
circumstances  at  that  time,  "  No  ship — no  sailor." 

"No  ?"  winked  the  little  yellow  rascal,  drawing  his  lips  from 
ear  to  ear,  "  no  ?"  and  turning  to  the  girls,  and  shaking  his  head 
very  seriously,  he  spoke  a  few  words  to  them,  and  the  whole 
crowd  burst  out  into  a  perfect  fit  of  laughter.  I  had  to  laugh 
myself  at  last,  and  that,  of  course,  proved  the  whole  matter 
against  me,  without  the  least  doubt.  I  had  never  in  my  life 
seen  a  set  of  Indians  more  pleased  than  they  were. 

Asking  at  last  for  the  missionary — for  I  longed  to  hear  as 
much  as  possible  about  this  beautiful  island,  and  did  not  under- 
stand enough  of  Tahitian,  to  do  it  in  that  language — I  had  hardly 
named  the  word  "  missionary,"  when  the  little  man  shook  off  all 
his  joking  ways,  described  a  couple  of  circles  and  signs  in  the  air, 
and  pointing  toward  some  very  thick  books,  which  lay  upon  one 
of  the  tables — of  course,  Bibles — and  saying  something  in  a  mur- 
derous language,  part  Indian,  part  self-made  words,  I  expect,  and 
'  the  rest  English,  he  came  suddenly  to  a  full  stop. 

"  But  where  is  the  missionary  ?"   I  asked  again. 

"  Me  mi-to-na-re,"  the  little  man  now  answered,  pointing  with 
a  great  deal  of  pleasant  self-consciousness  to  the  spot  where  his 
stomach  lay  under  his  white  cotton  shirt. 

From  his  explanation,  I  found  that  there  was  no  Englishman 
here.  As  I  understood  him  afterward,  a  white  missionary  lived 
on  the  other  side  of  the  island ;  but  having  no  time  to  look  for 
him  now,  I  had  to  content  myself  with  the  little  I  could  under- 
stand in  the  wonderful  communications,  which  my  newly-won 
friend  could  make  me,  and  at  it  I  went. 


334  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

My  mi-to-na-re  was  quite  a  pleasant  character ;  even  at  the 
risk  of  stumbling  twice  over  a  perfect  crowd  of  little  naked  boys, 
who  crawled  and  ran  about  between  and  under  his  feet,  he  cov- 
ered the  table  with  a  white  cloth,  and  laid  with  his  own  hands 
some  baked  bread-fruit,  roasted  pig,  bananas,  and  sweet  potatoes 
upon  it.  Afterward,  taking  down  a  large  roll  of  thick  yellow 
paper  from  one  of  the  shelves,  he  extricated  from  it,  with  some 
trouble,  two  pair  of  knives  and  forks ;  then  stepping  up  to  the 
table,  aud  saying  a  very  short  grace,  by  which  he  won  my  heart, 
he  quickly  took  his  seat,  and  invited  me  in  a  most  kind  and 
friendly  way  to  be  also  seated.  As  I  am  never  very  bashful — 
but  this  day  was  less  than  ever,  having  eaten  nothing  for  the  last 
twenty-four  hours,  on  account  of  the  dreadful  thirst — I  followed 
the  invitation  in  no  time,  and  we  soon  finished  every  particle  of 
the  delicious  meal. 

After  dinner  I  threw  myself  down  in  the  cool  shade  of  a 
guaiava-bush  close  to  the  shore ;  and  pushing  a  broken  piece  of 
an  old  canoe  under  my  head,  I  slept,  two  minutes  afterward, 
sweetly  and  soundly,  till  late  in  the  afternoon.  A  perfectly  trop- 
ical rain  drove  me  again  to  take  shelter  beneath  the  mi-to-na-re's 
roof.  But  the  rain  did  not  last  long;  and  the  white  clouds, 
lightened  of  some  of  their  burdens,  rose  again  around  the  high 
and  conical  peaks  of  the  mountains,  which  rose  nearly  perpendic- 
ularly from  the  valley. 

We  intended  to  pull  that  evening  a  couple  of  miles  farther,  to 
reach  the  habitation  of  some  acquaintance  of  my  Indians,  but 
we  had  to  get  some  cocoa-nuts  and  oranges  first,  as  a  new  stock 
of  provisions  ;  and  asking  my  little  missionary  for  them,  he  was 
perfectly  willing  to  let  us  have  as  many  as  we  wanted  ;  only 
taking  me  in  the  house  first  again,  he  asked  me,  rather  in  an 
undertone,  if  I  did  not  wish  first  for  a  little  "  dam." 

Dam  ! — what  the  deuce  was  that  again  ?  "Dam  ?"  I  asked 
at  the  same  time,  in  some  surprise  at  the  mysterious  behavior  of 
the  little  fellow. 

"Eh,  dam!"  he  repeated,  but  with  a  shake  of  the  head,  as  if 
he  were  going  to  say :  "  Well,  you  are  not  such  a  fool  as  not  to 
know  what  dam  is !"  and  he  made,  at  the  same  time,  a  quick 
movement  with  his  hand — lifting  his  thumb  to  his  lips,  and 
raising  afterward,  his  little  finger,  with  a  jerk,  which  explained 
the  whole. 


EMAO.  335 

"Ah,  dram!"  I  said  ;  and  he  nodded  quickly  and  kindly  to 
me,  pointing,  at  the  same  time,  to  a  little  cupboard  with  a  piece 
of  tapa  before  it,  and  containing  most  likely  his  spirituous  stores. 
But  I  astonished  him  not  a  little  by  my  assurance  that  I  did  not 
like  spirits,  and  very  seldom  drank  them — a  sailor,  and  drink  no 
spirits ! — for  a  sailor  I  was,  without  the  least  doubt.  But  still 
he  seemed  pleased  with  it,  and  said  :  "  Bery  gu — bery  gu  !"  add- 
ing at  the  same  time,  in  his  most  wonderful  English,  that  he 
drank  none  himself,  but  only  kept  it  for  strangers.  He  now 
pulled  off  his  shoes — a  cause  of  great  annoyance  to  him,  for  he 
wore  them,  as  it  seemed,  only  to  give  him  a  more  venerable  ap- 
pearance— and  showed  my  Indians  from  which  tree  they  should 
pluck  the  cocoa-nuts  ;  and  taking  me  into  his  garden,  he  him- 
self plucked,  or  shoved  down  with  a  long  pole,  the  oranges  and 
lemons  for  me. 

We  had  a  whole  basket  full,  and  the  Indians  threw  down  about 
eighteen  or  twenty  cocoa-nuts.  I  asked  the  little  man  now  how 
much  I  had  to  pay  him  for  it  all. 

Pay  ? — he  really  didn't  know — he  had  never  thought  of  that ; 
but  he  would  ask  his  old  woman,  who  most  certainly  knew  more 
about  it.  The  old  lady — and  a  most  respectable  old  body  she 
was — wrapped  up  in  a  large  piece  of  calico,  and  having  her  feet 
and  hands  tattoed  in  a  most  beautiful  manner,  came,  and  with 
her  the  whole  crowd  of  children  and,  in  fact,  all  the  inmates  of 
the  house — and  I  really  believe  the  nearest  neighbors  as  well — 
and  they  held  a  real  family  council,  surrounding  me  at  the  same 
time,  and  looking  at  me  as  I  stood  in  their  midst  with  my  basket 
of  oranges  beside  me,  just  as  if  I  had  stolen  them,  and  had  been 
caught  in  the  fact. 

The  result  of  this  animated  council  was,  that  the  mi-to-na-re 
turned  round  toward  me ;  and  shaking  his  head  as  if  he  was  going 
to  fling  his  ears  off,  he  told  me  that  his  old  woman  would  have 
nothing  at  all  for  the  fruit.  This  was  friendly  enough,  but  I 
knew  very  well,  at  the  same  time,  that  they  would  not  be  angry 
with  me  if  I  gave  them  something  in  spite  of  this  declaration. 
So  I  shook  hands  with  the  old  lady  as  a  sign  of  my  gratitude,  and 
left  a  half-dollar  in  her  palm,  at  which  her  face  brightened  up ; 
and  then  she  gave  me  her  other  hand,  shaking  mine  warmly. 
Then  the  missionary  came  to  give  me  his  hand,  and  then  the 
little  naked  boys  gave  me  theirs,  and  the  girls,  and  then  the 


336         k  JOURNEY  ROUND   THE  WORLD. 

whole  family,  and  finally  the  neighbors,  while  my  Indians  were 
rubbing  their  sticks  in  the  mean  time  together,  to  have  another 
smoke  before  we  started. 

Sailing  along  the  beautiful  landscape  in  our  little  craft,  re- 
freshed and  rested,  the  palm-covered  shore  flew  past  us  like  a  splen- 
did and  ever  changing  picture.  My  Indians  had  now  undertaken 
the  management  of  the  boat  entirely — the  old  one  steering,  one 
of  the  youngsters  punting  along  the  corals,  which  reached  here, 
in  many  places,  up  to  the  surface  of  the  water,  and  the  third 
standing  with  a  short  pole  in  the  bow  of  the  boat,  giving  direc- 
tions which  way  to  turn,  and  saving  us  from  all  the  coral-blocks 
we  might  come  in  contact  with.  I  had  perfect  leisure  to  turn 
my  whole  attention  to  the  shore,  and  I  made  full  use  of  it.  The 
coast  itself  seemed  in  the  mean  time,  full  of  life.  Small  planta- 
tions lined  the  bank — the  juvenile  population  of  the  houses  being 
outside  on  the  beach,  and  running  and  chasing  each  other,  scream- 
ing with  delight  and  pleasure. 

On  two  large  cocoa-nut  trees  hanging  over  toward  the  sea,  long 
bark-ropes  were  fastened,  and  on  the  lower  ends  of  them,  as  far 
as  the  ropes  would  let  them,  a  couple  of  these  little  brown  dare- 
devils were  swinging,  sometimes  nearly  touching,  as  they  shot 
back,  the  trunk  of  the  trees,  which  must  have  killed  and  crushed 
them  on  the  spot,  and  only  trusting  to  their  feet  to  ward  off 
such  a  dangerous  collision,  and  the  next  minute  again  flying  out 
over  the  green  sea,  where,  if  the  cord  had  broken,  it  would  have 
thrown  them,  without  even  a  chance  of  escape,  upon  the  hardly- 
covered  and  sharp  coral-reefs.  But  the  little  fellows  knew  no 
danger ;  and  while  the  children  swung  at  a  continual  peril  of 
their  lives  between  the  palms,  or  rode  upon  small  surf-boats  in  the 
high  and  roaring  breakers  of  the  reefs,  hurled  with  lightning 
speed  along  toward  the  death-threatening  shore,  the  parents  sat 
quietly  by  and  looked  at  the  sport,  thinking  their  children  as  safe 
in  these  wild  and  break-neck  games  as  we  do  ours  when  we  send 
them  in  small,  soft-cushioned  carriages,  pulled  by  a  two-nursery- 
maid power,  out  upon  the  promenade.  What  would  the  neigh- 
bors say — not  to  mention  all  the  other  good  Christians  who  trouble 
themselves  with  other  people's  business — what  a  cry  would  they 
have  raised  if  they  had  seen  these  children's  play  ;  but  "  en  cada 
tierra  su  uso  ;"  and  the  children  in  this  country  do  whatever  they 
please,  neither  the  parents  nor  even  the  neighbors  interfering. 


EMAO.  337 

It  was  just  getting  dark  when  we  reached  the  place  of  our 
destination ;  and  here  I  found  an  Indian  who  spoke  tolerably 
good  English,  having  formerly  made  a  cruise  in  a  whale-ship,  and 
who  showed  himself  as  kind  and  obliging  as,  in  fact,  all  his  people 
had  done  before. 

"  But  you  have  to  take  a  little  care,"  he  warned  me  kindly. 
"  The  French  have  possession  of  this  island,  and  deliver  runaway 
sailors  over  to  their  ships." 

"  But  I  am  no  sailor,"  I  replied,  not  being  able  to  get  accus- 
tomed to  the  accusation. 

"Well,"  the  brown  rascal  grinned,  "  that  is  none  of  my  busi- 
ness ;  but  you  better  do  take  care." 

He  told  me  also  of  two  white  men  who  were  on  the  island,  but 
shook  his  head  very  doubtfully  when  I  told  him  I  should  like  to 
see  them,  and  said  I  had  better  not. 

But  I  saw  no  reason  why  I  should  avoid  these  Europeans ;  in 
such  a  wild  spot  a  man  may  make  the  acquaintance  of  some 
countrymen  he  has  never  expected  to  find  there,  and  would  blame 
himself  ever  afterward  if  he  missed  the  opportunity  voluntarily. 
Asking  my  new  friend  to  show  me  the  house  where  the  strangers 
lived — and  I  could  not  make  out  by  his  talk  what  countrymen 
they  were,  because  he  spoke  always  of  "We-we," — he  readily 
did  so,  and  I  soon  after  entered  one  of  the  largest  Indian  huts, 
where  I  not  only  found  the  white  men,  but  also  the  whole  room 
full  of  natives. 

A  tall,  portly  man,  evidently  a  Frenchman,  sat  in  a  large  arm- 
chair, and  another  young  man,  by  his  face  just  as  undoubtedly 
English,  was  standing  in  the  middle  of  a  crowd  of  larger  and 
smaller  native  children,  trying  to  make  them  sing  a  hymn ;  more 
than  twenty  or  thirty  young  girls  were  squatting  and  sitting  on 
the  ground. 

The  Englishman — as  I  afterward  learned,  a  Mr.  Williams,  the 
son  of  a  missionary — asked  me  on  my  entrance,  rather  dryly, 
what  I  wanted.  And  I  answered  him  that  I  had  just  come  to 
this  island,  and  having  lived  a  short  time  among  none  but  In- 
dians, and  wishing  to  see  what  countrymen  those  Europeans 
whom  the  natives  had  spoken  of  to  me  were,  I  had  only  come  to 
pay  them  a  visit. 

"  What  does  he  want?"  the  Frenchman,  who  did  not  under- 

P 


338  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

stand  our  English  conversation,  and  had  listened  somewhat  im- 
patiently, asked  the  other. 

"I  do  not  know."  Mr.  Williams  answered  ;  "  he  seems  to  have 
only  just  come  to  Emao,  and  wants  a  place,  I  expect,  to  stay  all 
night  in." 

"And  why  does  he  come  here  for  that?"  the  Frenchman  ask- 
ed, rather  politely. 

"  Excuse  me,  gentlemen,"  I  interrupted  the  conversation,  in 
what  little  French  I  knew;  "pray  don't  waste  your  precious 
time  in  conjectures.  I  only  came  to  see  what  kind  of  white  men 
resided  here  ;  I  have  learned  all  I  wanted  at  present,  and — bon 
soir,  Messieurs." 

I  left  the  house  with  these  words,  and  met  my  Indian  again 
at  the  door,  pleased  beyond  expression  at  my  understanding,  with- 
out their  knowing  it,  what  they  said  among  themselves.  I  now 
remembered  the  old  suspicion  I  was  under ;  they  also  had  most 
certainly  thought  me  a  runaway  sailor,  and  of  course  did  not 
care  much  about  my  company ;  but  still  the  difference  in  the 
behavior  of  the  whites  toward  one  of  their  own  color,  in  contrast 
with  the  unceasing  kindness  of  the  natives,  struck  me  forcibly, 
and  not  in  favor  of  my  own  complexion. 

The  tall  Frenchman  was,  as  I  understood  now,  the  newly-ar- 
rived governor  of  the  islands,  the  Englishman  his  interpreter  with 
the  natives. 

"And  does  he  always  employ  himself  so  much  with  the  edu- 
cation of  the  native  children?"  I  asked  my  companion 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  with  a  grin,  "  with  the  large  ones." 

He  most  certainly  had  not  comprehended  my  meaning. 

That  night  I  swung  my  hammock  in  the  hut  of  the  Indian, 
and  slept  exceedingly  well ;  the  musquitoes  being  here  not  half 
as  bad  as  on  Maiao. 

In  the  house,  which  consisted  of  course  only  of  one  common 
room,  two  families  lived — that  is,  two  lately-married  couples — 
my  English-speaking  native  formed  part  of  one  of  them,  his  wife 
being  about  twenty-eight  or  twenty-nine  years,  and  not  the  pret- 
tiest woman  I  had  ever  seen,  but,  by  way  of  excuse,  I  fancy, 
he  told  me  that  he  had  married  with  her  the  little  house  and  the 
real  estate.  Things  are  exactly  the  same  there  as  with  us. 

The  other  couple  were  younger,  a  fine-looking  young  fellow, 


EMAO.  339 

married  to  as  nice  and  beantiful  a  little  wife  as  I  ever  wished 
to  see. 

After  sunrise  I  took  a  walk  with  my  companion,  and  following 
the  bed  of  a  little  streamlet,  that  came  rushing  down  from  the 
mountains  through  a  perfect  thicket  of  fruit  trees  and  flowers  we 
passed  a  great  part  of  the  little  village,  nearly  hidden  in  forests 
of  bread-fruit  and  cocoa-nut  trees,  orange-bushes,  and  bananas. 
Suddenly  we  heard  the  loud  and  merry  laugh  of  clear,voices,  and 
following  the  sound,  reached  a  small  shady  grove,  through  which 
the  streamlet  flowed  with  a  low,  murmuring  noise,  where  a 
swarm  of  young  girls  and  children  had  collected,  arid  were  en- 
joying, as  I  soon  found,  their  frugal  but  merry  breakfast. 

Holding  in  one  hand  pieces  of  baked  or  boiled  bread-fruit,  they 
dipped  it  in  the  pure  element ;  and  when  I  approached  them, 
they  offered  me  a  share  of  it  from  all  sides.  The  pieces  were 
torn  off  with  their  fingers,  it  is  true,  and  handed  in  the  same 
primitive  style  ;  but  they  all  looked  so  gay  and  fresh,  and  clean 
and  cool,  and  their  eyes  greeted  me  with  so  much  kindness,  that 
I  would  not  at  the  moment  have  exchanged  that  simple  piece  of 
bread-fruit  for  the  most  luxurious  dejeuner  of  the  old  world. 

I  stopped  a  long  while  in  this  merry  crowd,  and  on  turning 
afterward  through  a  large  bread-fruit  orchard  to  go  back  to  the 
house,  found,  to  my  astonishment,  horse-tracks.  Asking  my  In- 
dian about  it,  he  shook  his  head,  and  said,  "No  good."  He  also 
showed  me  soon  after  marks  on  the  bread-fruit  trees,  where  the 
horses  had  gnawed  the  whole  bark  off,  killed  several  trees  en- 
tirely, and  injured  a  great  many  others.  The  We-wes  had 
brought  these  animals  with  them,  but  they  did  not  suit  this  coun- 
try, where  they  would  soon  ruin  the  whole  plantations.  He 
wished  them  dead. 

But  who  were  the  We-wes  ?  I  had  heard  that  word  so  often, 
and  was  getting  anxious  to  discover  the  meaning.  My  Indian 
laughed,  and  soon  let  me  into  the  secret.  The  Indians  called  the 
French  in  their  presence,  and  also  most  commonly  in  the  pres- 
ence of  Europeans  whom  they  do  not  know,  after  a  kind  of 
translation  of  their  own,  Faranis  ;  but  among  themselves,  and 
as  a  nickname,  called  them  We-wes,  from  the  frequently-heard 
"  oui — oui"  of  the  not  greatly  liked  foreigners. 

When  we  arrived  at  his  house  again,  he  went  into  his  bit  of  a 
garden,  and  bending  down  over  a  little,  flat,  and  low  mound  of 


340  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

earth,  upon  which  he  laid  the  back  of  his  hand  for  about  a  sec- 
ond, he  said  :  "Breakfast  is  ready."  I  soon  saw  what  he  meant 
by  that.  Without  losing  any  more  time,  he  dug  the  ground  away 
with  a  flat  and  sharpened  stick,  and  brought  a  layer  of  yellow 
steaming  leaves  to  light.  These  he  lifted  very  carefully,  and 
below  them  lay — my  mouth  watered  at  the  sight — a  snow-white 
but  perfectly  well-done  little  pig,  surrounded  by  about  six  or  eight 
split  bread-fruits.  Hot  stones  formed  the  bed  on  which  these 
delicious  mortal  remains  of  a  pig  rested,  and  were  stuffed  into 
the  inside  of  it,  though  now  removed.  After  the  women  had 
broken  off  fresh  green  leaves  and  spread  them  upon  the  ground, 
the  pig  was  placed  upon  them  ;  and  while  we  all  squatted  and 
sat  around  it,  the  women  brought  young  cocoa-nuts  instead  of 
coffee,  and  a  couple  of  shells  with  salt-water  and  cocoa-nut  juice 
to  eat  our  meat  and  bread-fruit  with  ;  and  though  it  was  my 
second  breakfast  that  morning,  I  hardly  think  any  body  could 
have  perceived  the  fact. 

My  Maiao  Indians  had  intended  to  start  for  Tahiti  that  same 
day ;  but  there  was  a  fresh  easterly  breeze  blowing  right  in  our 
teeth  (if  we  had  not  reached  Emao  by  this  time,  we  should  have 
been  obliged  to  return  to  Maiao)  ;  and  therefore,  riot  being  anx- 
ious to  have  another  strong  pull  across  the  fifteen  miles  between 
this  island  and  Tahiti,  we  determined  on  staying  that  day  at 
Emao,  and  starting  next  morning,  wind  and  weather  permitting. 
My  natives  decided  on  going  about  a  mile  farther  up,  because 
there  was  a  better  place  there  to  feed  and  water  their  hogs.  The 
poor  beasts  had  got  nothing  since  we  started  from  Maiao,  but 
what  I  gave  them. 

When  just  ready  to  take  another  walk  after  our  meal,  to  see 
as  much  of  the  country  and  neighborhood  as  I  possibly  could  in 
the  short  time,  I  found  it  the  very  next  quarter  of  an  hour  a  per- 
fectly useless  job,  for  the  whole  neighborhood  had  come,  as  it 
seemed,  to  see  me.  I  discovered  the  cause  soon  enough.  My 
English-speaking  Indian  had  told  the  girls,  during  our  visit  that 
morning,  of  all  the  curious  and  wonderful  things  I  had  brought 
with  me  ;  of  my  instrument,  preserved  snakes  and  beetles,  beads 
and  panther-skin,  the  bows  and  arrows,  about  all  which  my  In- 
dians from  Maiao  must  have  given  him  a  very  particular  account, 
for  the  whole  company  seemed  determined  on  not  leaving  the  spot 
till  they  had  seen  every  thing1. 


EMAO.  341 

It  would  have  been  of  very  little  use  to  refuse  this  favor,  had 
I  even  thought  of  it ;  but  the  natives  had  been  so  kind  to  me, 
that  I  took  a  delight  in  pleasing  them  as  far  as  I  had  it  in  my 
power ;  and  five  minutes  afterward  I  was  not  unlike  the  keeper 
in  some  wild-beast  show,  explaining  to  the  raw  and  attentive 
country-folks  the  wonders  of  a  new  and  unknown  world. 

The  snakes  arid  frogs  were  most  admired ;  and  after  them, 
the  panther- skin. 

"While  opening  and  unpacking  my  things,  a  small  row  of  long 
and  rather  tasteful  beads  fell  out,  and  the  young  woman  of  the 
house  took  it  up,  looked  at  it,  and  handed  it  back  to  me,  whisp- 
ering at  the  same  time  something  to  her  husband.  Soon  after- 
ward, he  asked  me  if  I  would  sell  him  the  row  of  beads.  I  told 
him  no,  but  his  wife  was  welcome  to  them  as  a  remembrance. 
He  smiled,  and  handed  them  to  her,  the  little  woman  blushing 
at  the  same  time  up  to  her  eyes  ;  but  she  took  the  beads,  and  I 
shall  never  forget  the  soft  and  smiling  "  toranna"  with  which 
she  reached  out  her  little  hand  to  thank  me. 

Of  course  I  had  also  to  play  my  instrument,  the  strange  sounds 
being  at  least  something  new  to  them,  and  appearing  to  please 
them  for  a  little  while ;  but  this  same  evening  I  learned  what 
kind  of  music  they  liked  best. 

About  an  hour  later,  and  after  I  had  divided  a  quantity  of 
things  among  the  girls  and  women,  we  went  on  board  again,  sail- 
ing up  the  coast  about  one  or  two  miles  farther,  till  we  reached 
another  little  settlement :  this  being,  I  believe,  the  same  valley 
that  Hermann  Melville  has  described  so  well  in  his  "  Adventures 
in  the  South  Seas."  I  heard  also  here  of  a  couple  of  white  men 
who  had  lived  in  the  neighborhood,  and  "  raised  potatoes."  And 
where  were  they  now  ?  Gone  to  the  diggings,  of  course,  and 
whites  no  longer  existed  at  Emao. 

Leaving  the  natives  to  unload  their  boat  and  attend  to  their 
animals,  I  went,  as  soon  as  we  touched  shore,  for  a  walk  into  the 
interior.  Thick  guaiava-bushes  grew  on  both  sides  of  the  little 
streamlet,  which  here  poured  down  from  the  mountains,  irrigating 
fertile  and  carefully-inclosed  fields,  where  rows  of  sweet  potatoes, 
bananas,  and  bread-fruit  trees,  were  growing,  with  here  and  there 
high  and  waving  cocoa-nut  trees,  the  most  beautiful  palm  of  all. 
Crossing  some  of  the  thickets,  and  reaching  a  little  higher  ground, 
I  came  to  a  kind  of  opening  toward  the  mountains ;  and  there 


342  JOURNEY  KOUND  THE  WORLD. 

the  main  peak  of  the  island,  rising  to  a  height  of  at  least  four  or 
five  thousand  feet,  and  covered  up  to  its  very  top  with  the  most 
luxurious  vegetation,  formed  the  background  of  the  beautiful 
picture. 

These  mountains,  like  those  in  Tahiti,  are  overrun  with  a  large 
number  of  wild  cattle,  pigs,  and  goats  ;  and  in  former  times,  any 
body  could  go  up  into  the  mountains  and  shoot  them ;  but  now 
the  French  have  claimed,  or  rather  taken,  the  right  of  hunting  in 
these  mountains.  It  is  a  singular  fact,  however,  that  the  natives 
eat  neither  the  flesh  of  cattle  nor  goats,  nor  do  they  drink  the 
milk  of  the  animals.  Pigs,  on  the  contrary,  they  love  exceedingly, 
and  all  kinds  of  fowls  ;  but  fish,  as  I  have  remarked  before,  form, 
with  the  bread-fruit,  their  main  nourishment. 

Late  in  the  evening,  I  went  back  to  the  house  opposite  to  which 
our  boat  lay ;  but  another  boat  had  come  in  that  afternoon  from 
Tahiti,  and  I  met  an  intelligent  young  Frenchman,  also  in  the 
service  of  the  government,  with  whom  I  soon  got  acquainted, 
walking  with  him  backward  and  forward  upon  the  beach.  There 
was  at  least  one  human  being  with  whom  I  could  converse  ;  and 
as  he  had  been  a  good  while  on  these  islands,  he  could  give  me 
much  information  ;  but  he  did  not  like  the  life,  and  seemed  sadly 
tired  of  it. 

Coming  back  the  second  time,  we  met  a  worthy  old  gentleman, 
in  a  straw  hat  and  shirt,  and  with  the  common  pareu,  or  a  piece 
of  cloth  round  his  loins ;  but,  as  it  seemed  to  me  at  the  time,  with 
a  most  extraordinary  high  and  thick  pair  of  brown  tanned  fish- 
ing-boots on,  which  reached  up  to  his  hips ;  but  coming  nearer,  I 
saw  my  mistake,  and  at  the  same  time  one  of  the  most  extraordi- 
nary and  dreadful  cases  of  elephantiasis,  that  I  had  ever  yet  met  on 
the  islands.  Both  legs  and  feet  were  swollen  to  such  an  enormous 
size,  that  I  really  wondered  how  the  skin  of  the  leg  was  able  to 
stretch  so  far.  At  the  same  time,  the  upper  part  of  his  feet 
seemed  covered  entirely  with  a  large  kind  of  bluish-red  wart ; 
and  though  I  pitied  the  poor  devil  with  all  my  heart,  I  could  not 
help  feeling  a  loathing  at  the  disgusting  spectacle.  But  he  him- 
self seemed  perfectly  reconciled  to  his  fate.  Greeting  us  in  a 
very  friendly  manner,  he  stopped  and  laughed  with  the  people  he 
met,  and  was,  to  all  appearance,  as  well  satisfied  with  his  legs, 
as  if  he  had  obtained  and  kept  them  of  his  particular  will  and 
pleasure. 


EMAO.  343 

Upon  this  island  I  had  already  seen,  and  afterward  saw,  a 
great  many  more  of  these  cases,  and  it  really  seemed  as  if  no 
native  above  forty  years  was  perfectly  free  from  it.  Even  my 
Scotchman  at  Maiao  had  got  a  swelling  in  the  foot,  and  he  thought 
it  the  same  disease  which  very  frequently  attacks  Europeans  also. 

In  the  mean  time,  it  was  getting  dufk,  and  I  suddenly  noticed 
the  sharp,  but  as  yet  distant  sound  of  drums.  "  Are  soldiers  sta- 
tioned upon  this  island  ?"  I  asked  my  companion ;  but  he  told 
me  no,  and  added,  it  was  the  national  dance  of  the  islanders, 
which  I  ought  to  see,  if  I  had  never  been  present  at  it.  I,  of 
course,  lost  no  time  in  following  his  advice,  and  shall  never  for- 
get the  wild  scene  I  witnessed  this  evening. 

Upon  a  nearly  open  space,  in  an  old  bread-fruit  tree  orchard, 
forming  part  of  the  yard  of  a  large  building  which  government 
had  claimed,  I  do  not  know  for  what  purpose,  there  were  five 
Indians  stationed  with  drums — as  perfect  and  complete  regimental 
drums  as  I  ever  wished — or  rather  did  not  wish — to  hear.  The 
drummers  stood  in  two  rows,  opposite  one  another,  and  about 
eight  yards  apart ;  two  on  one  side,  and  three  on  the  other,  and 
they  beat  at  intervals  their  drums  with  a  peculiar  quick  tat-too. 
Round  them  the  whole  neighborhood  lay  scattered  over  the  green- 
sward, in  wildly-mixed  groups — at  least,  all  the  women  and  chil- 
dren— and  the  men,  young  and  old,  passed,  laughing  and  chat- 
ting, up  and  down  among  them.  But  each  time  when  the  drums 
commenced  beating,  a  couple  of  young  girls — and  pretty  and  wild 
damsels  they  were — threw  themselves  between  the  musicians,  in 
mad,  reckless  frolic,  dancing,  sometimes  singly,  sometimes  in 
pairs,  their  old  national,  and,  I  have  no  doubt,  partly  heathenish 
measures.  I  have  never  seen  a  more  wild,  but  at  the  same  time 
a  more  indelicate  dance,  than  this  cancan ;  but  each  movement 
of  the  wild  and  raving  girls  were  graceful,  and  never,  in  spite  of 
their  voluptuous  and  seductive  gestures,  low  or  vulgar. 

The  girls  were  that  evening  nearly  the  sole  dancers,  and  very 
rarely  one  of  the  young  men  jumped  in  between  them ;  but  if 
that  was  the  case,  as  it  occasionally  happened,  the  former  seemed 
to  grow  even  more  wild  and  reckless  than  before  ;  even  the  chil- 
dren sometimes  ran  and  jumped  in  the  row,  and  all  the  women 
in  the  place  behaved  as  if  stung  by  the  tarantula. 

The  young  Frenchman,  who  had  staid  by  my  side,  told  me 
he  had  seen  the  dance  far  worse  than  this,  the  girls  growing  so 


344  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

excited  at  last  as  to  throw  off  the  upper  part  of  their  clothing,  that 
they  might  not  be  restrained  even  by  their  very  loose  covering. 

It  was  a  pity  that  I  was  not  a  painter.  I  would  surely  have 
drawn  this  night-scene  :  in  the  background,  over  which  the  dark 
dim  outline  of  the  towering  mountains  rose,  was  the  low  yellow 
hut,  overhung  by  wavinf  cocoa-nut  trees,  to  the  right  and  left 
the  sombre  shade  of  the  dark-leaved  bread-fruit  trees ;  one  of  these 
an  old  sturdy  fellow  with  widely-stretching  limbs,  standing  in 
the  very  centre  of  the  group,  its  large  leaves  quivering  gently  in 
the  soft  breeze  that  came  down  from  the  mountains,  and  bearing 
on  one  of  its  branches  a  large  lantern,  from  which  the  sole  gloomy 
light  fell  on  the  mad  and  wild  crowd  dancing  beneath  it.  On 
both  sides  of  the  lantern  the  drummers  stood,  round  them  lay  and 
squatted  the  most  picturesque-looking  set  of  spectators  imagin- 
able, and  in  the  centre  these  brown  and  merry  girls  danced — no, 
reveled — with  their  floating  black  tresses  and  flowery  wreaths 
and  burning  eyes,  glistening  with  joy  and  pleasure. 

The  dance  lasted  till  late  in  the  night,  and  when  I  had  been 
swinging  a  long  while  in  my  hammock,  I  still  heard  as  in  a 
dream,  the  monotonous  rattling  of  the  drums,  mingling  their 
sounds  with  the  deep  growling  and  thundering  noise  of  the  stormy 
breakers. 

I  had  slung  my  hammock  that  night  between  two  fine  tui-tui 
trees.  And  I  think  a  warning  for  later  travelers  not  quite  un- 
necessary— wherever  you  sling  your  hammock  between  two  such 
trees,  except  they  are  very  high  cocoa-nut  trees  or  other  palms, 
see  first  that  there  are  no  chickens  roosting  above  you — turkeys 
are  just  as  bad,  or  worse — but  this  only  en  parenthese. 

The  next  morning,  the  wind,  at  last,  seemed  to  be  a  little 
more  favorable,  and  with  land  and  sea  breeze  we  hoped  to  reach 
Tahiti.  In  case  of  necessity,  my  natives  had  borrowed  some- 
where two  pair  of  real  oars,  with  which  we  could  pull  across  like 
Christians,  if  the  wind  failed  us  again.  It  was  very  hot,  but  as 
we  had  plenty  of  fruit  with  us,  and  a  good  spell  of  breeze  to  waft 
us  a  stretch  along,  I  did  not  mind  much  having  to  pull  afterward 
a  couple  of  hours  again.  We  had  the  beautiful  mountains  right 
before  us,  and  approached  them  with  every  stroke;  our  work 
would  soon  be  ended,  but  we  had  an  adventure  on  our  short  pas- 
sage. 

On  nearing  the  reefs  of  Tahiti,  which  surround  the  shore  to  a 


>  EMAO,  345 

distance  of  two  miles,  my  natives  took  to  their  sticks  again,  rub- 
bing away  to  get  fire,  and  looking  every  now  and  then  at  me  to 
see  if  I  would  not  help  them  with  the  tinder,  which  I  had  almost 
always  done  of  late.  I  had  been  eating  some  oranges — -arid  the 
oranges  of  these  islands  are  celebrated  even  on  the  American 
and  Australian  coast — and  was  throwing  the  peel  overboard, 
when  I  suddenly  saw  the  fin  of  a  shark  close  behind  our  boat, 
snuffing  the  peel  and  darting  from  one  piece  to  another — the  old 
fellow  had  most  certainly  gone  without  his  breakfast  that  morn- 
ing. But  I  had  hardly  shown  our  new  neighbor  to  the  Indians, 
when  they  were  suddenly  all  life  and  activity,  though  a  few  min- 
utes before  as  indolent  and  lazy  as  possible.  They  now  jumped 
up  from  their  seats,  the  old  one  first  of  all,  and  taking  down  our 
little  mast,  which  had  been  left  standing,  he  unfastened  as  quick 
as  he  could,  and  even  with  hands  trembling  with  eagerness,  the 
shrouds  of  the  pole,  making,  at  the  same  time,  a  firm  noose  out 
of  them,  while  one  of  the  boys  fastened  a  little  fish  which  they 
had  caught  that  morning,  to  another  short  line,  and  came  aft 
with  it.  I  soon  understood  what  they  meant  by  it,  and  taking 
the  bait,  I  let  it  float  back  a  little,  the  line  reaching  through  the 
old  Indian's  noose,  and  the  other  two  in  the  meantime  pulling,  so 
that  we  made  some  headway.  We  had  not  to  wait  long  to  see 
the  greedy  monster  of  the  deep  after  us  again.  Slowly  dragging 
the  bait  toward  the  boat,  the  shark  came  right  under  the  stern, 
and,  in  fact,  under  the  very  hands  of  the  Indian,  and  with  his 
head  exactly  in  the  noose  ;  but  the  old  fellow  was  too  much 
excited  and  pulled  too  quick,  so  that  it  caught  the  shark  just 
round  the  jaws,  and  held  him  hardly  long  enough  to  stretch  tight, 
before  it  slipped  off  again. 

But  the  shark  must  have  been  very  hungry,  for,  although  on 
feeling  the  line  around  him,  he  very  naturally  pulled  back  and 
disappeared  for  a  few  minutes,  he  would  not  leave  the  scent  of 
the  yet  trailing  fish,  and  coming  up  again,  maybe  twenty  yards 
behind  the  boat,  which  had  not  stopped,  and  just  in  her  wake,  he 
made  right  at  the  bait  again.  He  came  so  close  this  time  to  the 
Indian's  hands,  that  I  am  convinced  his  fingers,  while  he  actually 
laid  the  noose  round  his  head,  must  have  touched  him.  But  this 
time  he  got  the  noose  exactly  round  his  gills,  and  the  shark,  feel- 
ing the  hindrance  and  drawing  back  again,  found  himself  in  a 
scrape. 

p* 


346  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD . 

The  first  jerk  he  gave  was  not  so  very  hard,  and  we  two  could 
manage  it ;  but  it  was  a  good  thing  the  two  boys  had  dropped 
their  oars  and  jumped  quickly  to  our  help,  or  we  should  not  have 
been  able  to  stand  the  second  jerk  by  ourselves.  As  it  was  we 
had  all  hands  full  to  hold  on,  the  enraged  fish  pulling  with  all 
its  might,  and  now  in  its  full  vigor  and  its  own  free  element. 
The  boat  came  down  nearly  to  the  water's  edge ;  but  the  shark 
thinking,  most  probably,  that  if  diving  would  not  do  he  could  run 
away  from  us,  rose  up  again  to  the  surface — as  likely  as  not  the 
rope  over  its  gills  choked  him  a  little — and  we  now  had  a  run 
for  about  half  a  mile,  at  the  rate  of  five  or  six  knots.  Unhappily 
the  fish  ran  the  wrong  way,  or  we  would  have  been  perfectly 
satisfied  with  his  towing,  but  finding  he  could  not  succeed  he 
slackened  rope  suddenly ;  and  now  it  was  that  our  old  Indian, 
who  had  had  experience  enough  in  such  things,  screamed  to  us 
to  hold  tight,  and  taking  a  turn  round  one  of  the  thwarts,  we  had 
hardly  thrown  our  whole  energy  into  our  arms  and  legs,  when 
the  deciding  jerk  came,  upsetting  us  in  spite  of  all  our  precau- 
tions, and  bringing  us  all  down  on  our  knees  ;  but  we  did  not  let 
go.  And  now  the  powerful  fish  again  pulled,  this  time  nearly 
swamping  our  boat,  for  so  deep  did  it  press  it  down,  that  the 
water  commenced  rushing  in  ;  and  had  it  held  on  only  two 
seconds  longer,  it  would  hSve  been  free,  for  we  should  have  been 
obliged  to  let  go  line  and  shark.  But  it  seemed  to  have  spent 
all  its  strength  in  that  one  rush,  and  before  it  could  make  an- 
other trial,  and  as  soon  as  we  felt  the  rope  slackening  again,  we 
pulled  in  as  hard  as  we  could,  getting  the  shark  right  close  under 
our  boat.  Here  it  commenced  again,  and  one  blow  it  gave  I 
thought  must  have  knocked  a  plank  out  of  our  bottom,  but  all 
went  well ;  and  hauling  in  again,  we  had  the  unmanageable 
monster  soon  afterward  half  out  of  the  water  on  our  larboard 
side,  belaboring  its  nose  with  a  hatchet,  and  getting  hold  at  last 
of  its  tail,  which  we  quickly  cut  off  with  a  knife.  The  shark 
was  then  done  for ;  and  letting  it  drag  a  little  while  to  bleed, 
we  pulled  it  in  afterward,  threw  it  in  our  boat — for  the  natives 
told  me  it  was  the  most  excellent  meat  a  person  could  taste — 
and  continued  our  course. 

We  had  lost  a  great  deal  of  time  with  our  chase,  and  it  was 
tolerably  late  in  the  afternoon  before  we  reached  the  Tahitian 
shore,  where  we  still  had  to  run  along  a  good  distance.  The 


EMAO.  347 

mountains  of  Tahiti  are  not  so  shaply  cut  and  picturesque  as 
those  of  Emao,  but  are  certainly  much  higher  ;  and  as  they  are 
covered  with  luxurious  vegetation  up  to  the  very  summit,  they 
present  a  far  more  lively  and  friendly  aspect  then  those  of  the 
Sandwich  Islands. 

Running  along  the  palm-covered  shore,  hardly  at  a  distance 
of  a  hundred  yards,  and  once  even  landing  to  have  a  fresh  drink 
from  one  of  the  streams,  we  had  a  full  view  of  all  the  beauties 
of  this  far-famed  coast,  and  I  hardly  know  of  any  in  nature  more 
exquisite  than  the  shores  of  this  island. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

TAHITI. 

IT  was  dusk  before  we  neared  the  harbor  of  Papetee,  the  prin- 
cipal one  upon  the  island,  with  the  town  of  the  same  name.  Just 
before  dark  we  recognized  some  ships  there  at  anchor,  and  soon 
afterward,  night  following  the  setting  sun  with  extraordinary 
rapidity,  we  saw  the  lights  of  the  populous  place  twinkling 
through  the  darkness  all  along  the  beach. 

I  have  the  singular  misfortune  of  entering  nearly  every  foreign 
harbor  in  the  night,  and  consequently  losing  the  first  and  natur- 
ally deepest  impression.  Here  it  was  the  same  case — not  even 
the  moon  lighted  us  on  our  course,  and  in  perfect  darkness  we 
had  to  grope  our  way  along  the  reefs  till  we  reached  the  large 
buoys  which  the  French  have  laid  down,  when  we  came  into 
the  main  channel  of  the  ships,  and  were  soon  afterward  just 
opposite  the  little  town  itself. 

But  something  struck  me  as  very  singular  in  the  town  :  along 
the  beach  there  was  a  row  of  lights  at  perfectly  regular  distances 
— could  this  be  an  accident,  a  number  of  huts  lying  in  such  places 
open  to  view  ?  or — they  could  not  of  course  be  lanterns — street- 
lanterns  in  the  South  Sea  ! — the  idea  was  too  ridiculous. 

Nearer  and  nearer  we  came,  running  between  two  ships  at 
anchor,  and  steered  exactly  for  one  of  those  lights,  my  three  In- 
dians pulling  with  all  their  might,  and  now — by  all  that  swam 
upon  the  water — it  really  was  an  old,  well-remembered,  homely- 
looking,  honest  street-lantern,  with  its  dim  glasses  and  dimmer 
flame,  standing  just  under  a  waving,  whispering  cocoa-nut  tree, 
while  the  southern  cross  glittered  in  all  its  splendor  over  them 
both. 

I  felt  really  moved ;  thoughts  of  home,  of  paved  streets,  of 
bawling  watchmen,  of  quiet,  lonely  streets,  with  the  polar  star 
glittering  on  high  above  them,  rose  to  my  mind.  I  had  always 
felt  a  kind  of  inclination  toward  street-lanterns — I  had  loved 


TAHITI.  349 

them ;  and  now  that  I  found  one  of  them  here,  far  away  from 
home,  in  the  midst  of  the  South  Pacific,  I  was  perfectly  taken  by 
surprise. 

Our  boat  touched  the  beach  and  1  jumped  ashore  and — kissed 
the  classic  ground  of  Pom  are  ?  no,  but  I  embraced  the  lantern- 
post,  telling  it  at  the  same  time  how  exceedingly  glad  I  was  to 
make,  here  in  Tahiti,  and  when  least  expected,  its  acquaintance. 

The  beach  just  were  we  landed,  was  perfectly  thronged  with 
native  men  and  women.  I  also  saw  a  few  white  men  among 
them,  but  I  had  not  been  five  minutes  ashore,  when  the  quick 
beating  of  a  drum  or  a  couple  of  drums — and  it  could  not  be  far 
off — struck  my  ear.  Rebellion  was  my  first  thought — a  sum- 
mons to  the  people  to  separate — a  short  speech  from  the  com- 
manding officer,  tedious  reading  of  the  riot  act,  and  three  volleys 
— or  first  three  volleys,  as  in  Leipzig  on  the  12th  of  August, 
1848.  Had  a  Prussian  regiment  marched  in  here,  to  help  the 
French  to  restore  peace  and  happiness  to  the  people  ?  My  fears 
were,  however,  unfounded,  the  beating  of  the  drum  at  eight  o'clock 
in  the  evening  being  only  a  peaceful  and  regular  custom,  another 
way  of  striking  eight  bells,  and  giving  the  Indians,  at  the  same 
time,  warning  to  go  home.  Half  an  hour  later  a  gun  was  fired 
from  the  guard-ship,  and  from  that  time  no  Indian,  man  or 
woman,  was  allowed  to  loiter  in  the  streets. 

I  wandered  in  the  mean  time  up  and  down  on  shore,  or  in 
Front-street,  as  I  ought  to  call  it,  wondering  what  had  so  sud- 
denly become  of  all  the  natives  whom  I  had  seen  crowding  this 
place  hardly  ten  minutes  ago,  and  who  were  now  among  the 
missing.  I  wanted  to  find  a  boarding  and  lodging-house,  but 
though  there  were  some  houses  which  had  large  sign-boards  with 
"hotel"  painted  on  them  in  immense  characters,  still  no  house 
could  lodge  strangers ;  and  taking  a  light  supper  in  one  of  the 
French  houses,  consisting  of  half  a  bottle  of  sour  claret,  and  some 
bread  and  butter,  I  walked  out  again  to  go  on 'board,  for  I  determ- 
ined on  sleeping  this  night  in  the  boat  again,  and  so  have  plenty 
of  time  next  day  to  look  out  for  lodgings. 

But  how  to  get  into  the  boat  ?  when  I  reached  the  place  where 
she  had  been  lying,  I  found  the  Indians  had  taken  her  out  about 
a  hundred  yards  or  more  into  the  bay,  for  fear  of  low  water, 
which  always  sets  in  here  at  midnight ;  and  hailing  them  did 
not  the  least  good,  for  they  slept  in  their  usual  fashion,  like  tops. 


350  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

I  pulled  off  my  clothes ;  and  determined  on  making  short  work 
of  it.  I  did  not  believe  the  water  deep,  and  thought  I  would 
soon  wade  out,  but  hardly  fifty  yards  from  shore,  I  found  I  was 
mistaken,  for  I  had  to  swim.  No  matter — ten  minutes  later,  I 
was  on  board  and  rolled  up  in  my  blankets,  my  face  turned 
toward  the  friendly  lanterns,  and  there  dreamt  away  my  first 
night  in  Tahiti. 

With  the  gun-fire  which  marked  day-break,  I  awoke,  and  sat 
up,  for  I  longed  to  see  the  harbor  of  Papetee,  of  which  I  had 
read  and  heard  so  much,  in  broad  daylight,  but  as  it  happens 
very  frequently,  my  expectations,  had  been  raised  too  high.  Ta- 
hiti had  been  called  the  Garden  of  Paradise,  and  its  harbor  the 
most  beautiful  spot  in  the  whole  world,  and  I  now  found  that  I 
had  seen  finer  ones.  The  mountains  which  form  the  background 
are  high,  it  is  true,  and  wooded  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach,  even 
in  their  steepest  clefts  and  ravines ;  but  they  run  too  far  back, 
with  a  too  gently  rising  slope,  at  least  when  seen  from  this  place, 
and  want,  besides,  sharply  marked  outlines  to  form  a  picturesque 
panorama. 

Still  this  quiet  bay  was  a  most  lovely  spot  in  spite  of  all,  with 
its  foaming  breakers  on  one  side,  and  the  peaceful  cottages  sur- 
rounded by  palms  and  fruit-tree  groves  on  the  other ;  while  a 
small,  thickly-wooded  island,  crowned  with  cocoa-nut  trees,  that 
lay  right  in  the  entrance,  was  set  as  in  a  frame,  on  one  side  by 
the  fantastically-cut  mountains  of  the  distant  Emao,  on  the  other 
by  the  blue  and  wide  ocean.  Toward  east  and  west  two  points 
of  land  ran  right  out  toward  the  reefs,  while  in  its  inner  circle 
lay  the  little  town  of  Papetee. 

Where  we  lay,  the  place  did  not  look  exactly  like  a  town,  but 
rather  like  a  long  uninterrupted  row  of  cottages  surrounded  by 
gardens,  just  as  we  find  in  the  environs  of  a  larger  city,  had  it 
not  been  that  a  quantity  of  really  Yankee-like  and  monstrous 
large  hotel  sign-boards,  took  all  the  poetry  away,  and  at  the 
same  time  put  the  Californian  stamp  upon  this  favorite  spot  of 
nature — "  Gold,  at  any  rate." 

There  were  not  so  many  ships  in  the  bay  as  I  had  expected — 
only  a  couple  of  whalers,  a  Frenchman,  and  an  American,  two 
or  three  merchantmen,  a  schooner  destined  for  Sydney,  and  sev- 
eral government  vessels ;  among  these  the  Oahu  schooner,  "  Kame- 
hameha,"  a  beautiful  little  craft,  of  which  the  French  several 


TAHITI,  351 

years  ago,  as  I  stated  before,  actually  robbed  the  poor  islanders. 
Louis  Napoleon  has  given  Abd-el-Kader  his  liberty,  and  I  honor 
him  for  that,  but  there  is  a  beautiful  little  spot  in.  the  South  Seas 
— Oahu — to  which  he  has  yet  to  do  justice. 

The  Indians  had  pulled  their  boat  at  daybreak,  and  with  the 
rising  tide,  back  to  the  shore  again,  and  by  the  way  were  not  a 
little  astonished  at  finding  me  in  it,  as  they  had  heard  nothing  at 
all  of  my  coming  on  board  in  the  night ;  and  carrying  our  shark 
upon  the  beach,  they  found  themselves  immediately  surrounded 
by  a  perfect  crowd  of  natives,  every  Indian  in  Tahiti  seeming 
really  anxious  to  get  a  piece  of  shark-meat  to-day,  pressing  to  it 
to  have  a  first  cut,  and  running  off  with  his  prize,  as  if  he  had 
got  hold  of  the  most  delicious  morsel  in  the  world.  But  a  kind 
of  fat  and  comfortable  looking  market-master  broke  up  the  trade 
on  the  beach,  telling  our  boys  that  they  were  not  allowed  to  sell 
any  thing  there,  but  must  take  it  to  the  market-house,  and  offer 
it  there*  for  sale.  Only  the  tail  of  the  whole  fish  which  measured 
about  seven  feet,  was  left,  and  with  this  they  prepared  to  start 
for  the  place ;  but  two  'of  the  most  greedy  customers  took  the 
trouble  of  carrying  the  fish  for  them,  taking  hold  of  it  on  both 
sides,  not  to  lose  the  prize,  and  were  followed  by  a  whole  crowd 
of  laughing  and  merry  little  fellows. 

The  first  and  most  necessary  thing  for  me,  was  to  go  to  some 
store  and  buy  some  light  summer  dress.  I  looked  as  if  I  had 
been  lying  for  a  long  while  on  the  weather-side,  and  did  not  like 
to  appear  in  that  state  in  town.  Walking  through  the  main  and 
only  street  of  the  place,  except  Front-street,  and  which  is  called 
the  Broom  Road  (I  don't  know  for  what  reason),  I  soon  found  the 
sign  of  an  English  store,  kept  by  another  Scotchman,  who  seemed 
to  sell  a  little  of  every  thing,  from  hot  rolls  to  Brandreth's  pills, 
coats,  pantaloons,  hats,  all  kinds  of  finery,  brooms,  soap,  powder 
and  shot,  and  a  thousand  other  things  besides.  In  looking  at 
some  of  his  goods,  I  asked  the  storekeeper — and  a  rough-looking 
storekeeper  he  was — if  he  could  not  show  me  to  a  good  boarding 
and  lodging-house,  and  he  advised  me  to  buy  what  I  wanted 
first,  and  he  would  then  go  himself  with  me,  to  an  excellent 
place.  The  man  knew  every  thing  :  only  one  thing  seemed  to 
puzzle  him,  how  I  had  come  to  the  island,  as  for  several  days  no 
vessel  had  entered  the  harbor  ;  and  still  here  I  was,  and  just 
come  into  town — he  would  swear  to  that,  for  he  knew,  as  he 


352  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

said,  every  rat  in  the  place.  Being  a  Scotchman  I  believed  him, 
and  told  him  I  had  come  in  a  boat  from  Maiao — and  he  knew  the 
place  well — where  I  had  landed  from  a  whaler. 

"  In  a  boat,  and  from  a  whaler  ?  ahem  !  Boat-steerer  ?"  he 
asked,  quietly. 

"Boat-steerer,"  I  answered  him  now,  perfectly  satisfied  I  could 
not  struggle  against  fate,  and  only  soothing  my  ambition  by  claim- 
ing the  title  of  boat-steerer,  not  to  be  thought  a  common  sailor. 
"  But  then  you'll  have  some  difficulty  in  getting  a  permit  of 
residence,"  the  man  added  ;  "  the  police  here  are  extremely  sharp 
in  such  cases,  and  nobody  is  even  allowed  to  let  you  stay  all  night 
at  their  house,  without  you  can  procure  that.  You'll  have  to 
get  somebody  to  be  security  for  you." 

Permit  of  residence,  street-lantern,  police  !  oh,  sweet,  sweet 
home  '  I  really  thought  for  a  minute  I  was  in  Germany,  but 
they  had  not  asked  for  my  passport  yet.  Those  words  had  touch- 
ed me  deeply,  and  really  my  heart  swelled  within  me,  but  the 
storekeeper  most  probably  thought  he  had  frightened  me  terribly, 
and  tried  to  cheer  me  up  again. 

"You'll  find  some  friend  or  other  here,  no  doubt,"  he  said; 
"  there  is  always  a  way  to  dodge  the  police.  D — n  the  French 
any  how  !" 

I  assured  him  that  I  would  try  my  best  to  take  things  coolly, 
and  bought,  before  all,  what  I  needed,  and  more,  I  think,  than 
he  had  expected  ;  and  afterward  took  a  walk  down  to  the  police- 
office,  to  see  what  I  had  to  do,  and  what  they  expected  of  me. 
But  the  commissaire  not  being  in,  the  clerk  could  only  tell  me 
that  I  must  bring  a  security  if  I  wanted  to  stay  on  shore. 

I  now  went  to  the  American  consul,  a  Mr.  Gray,  a  merchant 
in  the  place,  to  whom  I  gave  my  letter  of  recommendation  from 
Mr.  Fliigel,  the  American  consul  at  Leipzig,  a  paper  for  which 
I  had  to  thank  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Graham  of  Buenos  Ayres. 
Mr.  Gray  would  have  had  nothing  to  do,  but  write  a  few  lines  to 
the  police  office,  stating  who  and  what  I  was  ;  but  he  preferred 
recommending  me  to  the  American  Hotel  at  the  same  time  as  a 
boarding  and  lodging-house  :  the  landlord  of  the  place  would 
then  be  my  security,  and  if  I  brought  him  to  his  house  he  would 
speak  to  him  on  the  subject. 

Not  intending  to  ask  any  landlord  in  Tahiti  to  be  security  for 
me,  and  much  less  to  trouble  Mr.  Gray  again,  I  went  straight 


TAHITI.  353 

back  to  the  police-office,  showed  the  commissaire,  who  had  ar- 
rived in  the  mean  while,  my  papers,  was  received  by  him  in  a 
most  kind  and  friendly  manner,  and,  a  quarter  of  an  hour  later, 
obtained,  without  any  further  security,  my  permis  de  sejour  in 
Papetee. 

While  walking  through  the  town  that  morning,  I  had  seen  a 
sign  with  the  inscription  "  Merz,  tailleur,  tailor,  Schneider,"  most 
certainly  one  of  my  countrymen,  who  told  the  people  in  three  lan- 
guages that  he  mended  inexpressibles ;  but  there  was  a  possibil- 
ity of  my  finding  that  he  had  a  room  to  let,  as  I  had  heard  that 
most  single  men  in  Papetee  lived  in  this  way,  and  took  their 
meals  wherever  they  liked.  The  Scotchman  in  town  had  in  fact 
recommended  me  to  a  boarding-house,  and  seemed  very  anxious 
to  get  me  in  there,  praising  the  accommodation  in  a  most  extrav- 
agant manner ;  but  I  did  not  like  the  look  of  the  place,  for  it 
seemed  particularly  dirty,  and  I  declined  the  pleasure.  I  entered 
the  little  tailor's  house,  and  found  him  just  sitting  down  to  table 
with  an  Englishman — and  English  Jew  who  worked  for  him,  a 
Frenchman,  and  an  Indian  woman,  the  Frenchman's  wife. 

I  had  not  been  in  the  room  five  minutes,  before  I  fully  made 
up  my  mind  on  stopping  with  this  little  tailor  awhile,  even  if  I 
had  to  lie  on  the  bare  boards.  He  was  a  character  for  me,  and 
conversed  afr  table  with  each  of  us  four  in  his  own  language,  mur- 
dering them  all  in  such  an  extraordinary  manner,  as  to  leave  his 
hearers  sometimes  entirely  in  doubt  which  of  them  he  was  em- 
ploying at  the  time.  He  was  born  at  Strasburg,  and  had  gained 
the  right  of  speaking  no  German  thereby ;  but  he  also  spoke  no 
Indian,  no  French,  and  no  English,  and  in  spite  of  that  he  related 
anecdotes  in  all  these  languages.  Half  an  hour  later,  a  Spaniard 
entered  his  room  ;  but  while  conversing  with  him,  they  both  took 
the  Indian  language  as  a  medium ;  the  little  tailor  having  first 
remarked  to  him,  "  Me  no  sabe  you  speak,"  which,  I  am  morally 
convinced,  he  intended  to  be  Spanish.  Except  my  old  friend 
Schwarz  on  the  Sacramento,  and  another  one,  Bockenheim,  on 
the  Fourche  la  Fave,  in  Arkansas,  I  never  saw  a  man  in  the 
wide  world  who  positively  spoke  no  living  language  at  all,  like 
my  little  tailor  ;  he  was  a  personified  miniature  Babel. 

Most  fortunately  he  had  a  room  to  let,  and  seemed  to  be  just 
as  glad  to  have  somebody  for  it,  as  I  was  to  find  it ;  only  one 
thing  he  saw  a  difficulty  in — my  permit  of  residence  He  told 


354  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

me  that  I  would  have  to  find  a  security,  and  I  asked  his  opinion 
about  it. 

"  Well,  I  will  tell  you,"  he  said  (but  I  only  give  here  the  trans- 
lation of  what  he  told  me  in  his  Tahiti-French-German) :  "  I'll 
do  every  thing  I  can  for  you  (neither  of  us  knew  yet  what  that 
possibly  might  be) ;  but  security  ?  no — security  I  really  can  not 
give  for  you.  I  would  do  it  for  no  man,  not  even  for  my  brother, 
if  I  had  one." 

"  But.  my  dear  Mr.  Merz,"  I  replied  with  a  great  deal  of  mild- 
ness "  you'll  acknowledge  that  this  is  a  thing  I  have  really  not 
thought  of  asking  you  for — as  far  as  I  can  recollect,  I  have  not 
said  a  word  about  it  to  you." 

"No,"  my  little  host  answered,  with  perfect  coolness,  "no,  I 
know  very  well ;  but  I  am  such  a  good-hearted  fellow,  I  can  not 
deny  any  body  any  thing  he  asks  for,  and  therefore  I  think  it  best 
to  tell  all  strangers  beforehand,  I  won't  be  security  for  them,  so 
they  don't  ask  me  at  all." 

There  was  an  argument.  But  the  main  point  now  was  to  get 
my  baggage  from  the  boat  into  the  house  and  under  a  roof.  His 
native,  a  boy  he  kept  to  run  his  little  errands  and  boil  his  coffee, 
was  to  help  me  in  this  matter,  and  Mr.  Merz  himself  went  down 
to  the  beach  with  me  "  to  see  every  thing  clear."  The  rent  for 
the  little  room,  without  bed  or  chair,  or  table,  or  afly  thing  but 
merely  the  naked  wall,  was  a  dollar  a  week. 

"  But  that  is  settled,"  he  added,  turning  suddenly  round 
toward  me,  and  shaking  his  head.  "  I'll  do  every  thing  I  can 
for  you,  but  can  not  get  you  a  permis  de  sejour" 

"But,  my  dear  Mr.  Merz — " 

"  No,  I  really  can  not  be  security  for  you  ;  it's  no  use  arguing 
the  matter,  for  I  have  paid  too  dear  already  for  such  things. 
Once  there  lived  in  my  house  a — " 

"  But  I  have  already  got  my  permis  de  sejour  in  my  pocket," 
I  interrupted  him. 

"  You  have  it  in  your  pocket !"  he  stopped  quite  astonished  in 
the  middle  of  the  street ;  "  but  why  didn't  you  say  so  before  ?" 
and  now  explaining  to  me  his  fear  about  giving  security,  though 
he  had  not  yet  lost  a  sou  by  it,  we  took  my  luggage  to  his  house, 
and  half  an  hour  later  I  had  stretched  my  hammock  at  home  on 
the  floor,  my  serape  upon  it,  forming  a  most  excellent  bed  in  such 
a  climate — and  had  every  thing  in  order. 


TAHITI.  355 

But  I  wanted  a  bath  now  before  any  thing  else,  and  having 
had  enough  of  salt-water  for  awhile,  I  willingly  followed  my 
little  tailor,  who  promised  to  take  me  to  the  finest  possible  bath- 
ing-place, about  a  mile  distant,  in  a  fresh- water  stream. 

"We  had  a  most  beautiful  walk  through  the  little  garden-like 
town,  down  a  long  road  between  orchards,  bread-fruit  trees 
planted  in  rows  with  bananas  between  them,  and  orange,  citron, 
and  guaiava  thickets,  through  which  we  took  at  last  a  narrow 
path,  and  reached  a  small  but  beautiful  basin  of  the  mountain 
stream,  where  it  made  a  short  bend,  sweeping  away  under  a  steep 
bank,  upon  which  the  stump  of  an  old  we  or  mango-tree  stood, 
while  guaiavas  and  citron  trees  threw  their  shade  over  the  clear 
and  swift  current  of  that  little  stream. 

There  were  about  ten  or  twelve  young  Frenchmen — soldiers 
most  of  them — also  bathing  here  ;  and  we  had  not  been  more 
than  five  minutes  in  the  water  when  one  of  the  native  beauties, 
a  young  girl  of  about  seventeen  or  eighteen  years  old,  stepped 
suddenly  out  of  the  thick  bushes,  and  squatted  down  right  close 
to  our  bathing-place.  She  was  dressed  in  one  of  the  common 
long  calico-frocks,  or  wrappers,  with  a  wreathe  of  white  flowers 
upon  her  jet-black  and  well-greased  locks. 

"  Hallo,  Wahine !"  the  young  Frenchman  cried,  laughing, 
"  come  in  with  us,  the  water  is  quite  cool,  and  there  is  room 
enough." 

The  girl  said  nothing,  but  looked  at  us  with  a  half-smiling, 
half-saucy  look ;  she  seemed  half  inclined  to  accept  the  invita- 
tion, and  yet  she  did  not  move  ;  but  the  young  Frenchman  kept 
teasing  her,  and  begged  her  "  not  to  be  afraid." 

The  bathing-place  itself  consisted  of  a  small  basin,  some  twenty 
yards  long,  and  ten  yards  wide,  formed  by  a  broad  stone  dam, 
thrown  up  right  across  the  stream.  The  deepest  place  in  it  was 
not  more  than  eight  or  nine  feet,  and  that  only  on  a  very  small 
spot,  where  a  kind  of  hole  had  formed  in  the  bottom.  Upon  the 
other  side  I  have  already  mentioned  that  an  old  shattered  trunk 
of  a  tree  stood  about  seven  feet  above  the  ground,  and  perhaps 
fourteen  above  the  surface  of  the  water,  beneath  whose  roots  the 
current  washed  and  fretted,  and  had  hollowed  out  a  couple  of 
feet  of  the  bank.  The  girl  was  still  squatting  on  the  ground 
opposite  this  tree,  and  her  eyes  sparkled  and  shone ;  but  sud- 
denly, when  one  of  the  young  and  rather  impatient  fellows  swam 


356  JOURNEY  KOUNB  THE  WORLD. 

toward  her,  she  jumped  up,  and  disappeared  the  next  instant  in 
the  thicket. 

"  Miri,  miri !"  a  clear  voice  cried  at  that  instant  right  above  us  ; 
and  looking  up,  we  saw  upon  the  hardly  six  inches  wide  top  of 
the  old  trunk  the  wild  young  creature,  her  frock  thrown  off,  only 
with  a  piece  of  calico  round  her  hips,  and  with  waving  locks  ;  and 
nearly  at  the  same  moment,  raising  her  arms,  and  caring,  as 
it  seemed,  not  a  straw  for  all  who  were  below  her,  she  jumped 
with  a  shout  right  down  between — ay,  upon  us,  giving  us  hard- 
ly time  to  dodge  away  from  under  her.  Two  seconds  after- 
ward she  was  on  shore  again,  climbing  like  a  cat  up  the  tree, 
the  clear  water  pouring  down  from  her  as  she  stood  upright  and 
threw  back  her  dark  and  wet  tresses  from  her  brow. 

It  was  a  charming  picture,  and  I  could  not  take  my  eyes  off 
the  youthful  and  slender  form  of  this  brown  girl,  so  wild  and  yet 
so  beautiful ! 

We  went  back  soon  afterward  to  town,  it  being  high  time  to 
do  so,  if  we  wanted  to  get  there  dry,  for  a  tropical  rain  set  in 
about  half  an  hour  later  in  a  perfect  flood.  These  rains  occur 
here  twice  in  the  year,  and  those  in  January  and  February  are 
said  to  be  the  worst. 

Papetee — as  the  chief  town  and  harbor  of  this  island  is  called 
— has,  as  I  mentioned  before,  more  the  look  of  a  garden  than  of  a 
town,  for  the  Broom  Road,  the  main  and  only  street  of  Papetee, 
is  nothing  but  a  continuation  of  gardens,  where  low  shaded 
houses  are  more  than  half  hidden  under  thick  groves  of  bread- 
fruit trees,  bananas,  papayas,  and  oranges,  overlooked  by  the 
numerous  and  graceful  cocoa-nut  trees. 

The  French  government  has  already  erected  in  Tahiti  several 
very  large  and  roomy  buildings,  partly  for  barracks,  partly  for 
government  use  ;  also  dug  and  thrown  up  a  good  and  passable 
road  round  the  whole  island,  at  which  the  Indians  had  to  work, 
whether  they  liked  it  or  not,  and  of  course  they  did  not  like  it, 
but  it  was  finished,  and  is  now  a  great  benefit  to  the  European 
population  at  least,  and  for  all  military  operations  of  the  conquer- 
ors. The  natives,  though,  could  have  done  very  well  without  it, 
as  they  had  done  for  centuries  before. 

The  French  have  made  a  most  excellent  improvement  for 
shipping  in  a  new  water-work,  by  which  a  stream  of  water, 
about  two  inches  in  diameter,  is  led  to  a  solid  stone  wharf, 


TAHITI.  357 

whence  it  falls  about  two  or  three  feet  into  the  bay.  Boats  have 
only  to  run  under,  fit  a  hose  to  it,  and  fill  their  casks. 

It  was  Sunday,  and  gaudily,  but  very  cleanly  dressed  native 
girls  and  boys,  rambled  about  the  street.  I  wanted  to  see  a 
native  church,  and  following  several  of  the  most  serious-looking 
to  the  other  end  of  town,  I  came  to  a  large  wooden  building, 
simple,  airy,  and  perfectly  well  adapted  for  the  purpose.  Four 
doors,  at  the  four  different  corners,  stood  open,  regardless  of  any 
possible  draught ;  and  the  voice  of  the  clergyman,  who  preached 
in  the  native  language — the  inner-room  being  filled  already  with 
a  very  motley,  if  not  very  numerous  crowd — sounded  from  the 
pulpit. 

I  went  in  and  sat  down  on  the  nearest  bench ;  the  interior 
smelled  decidedly  of  cocoa-nut  oil  and  shark.  But  I  soon  forgot 
this,  in  observing  the  various-colored  dresses  of  the  Indians ; 
their  dark  expressive  features,  black  sparkling  eyes,  and  before 
them  the  old  silver-haired  man  behind  the  simple  altar,  covered 
with  a  white  cloth,  who  had  brought  to  the  children  of  a  foreign 
race  a  new  religion,  and  now  taught  it  in  their  own  language  ; 
while  outside  the  windows  the  leaves  of  the  cocoa-nut  trees 
gently  waved,  and  the  hollow  noise  of  the  ever-rolling  breakers 
thundered.  All  this  together  made  a  most  singular  impression 
upon  me,  and  I  do  not  know  how  it  happened,  but  wild  and 
strange  thoughts  shot  through  my  mind,  and  it  was  long  before 
I  could  turn  my  senses  again  to  outward  objects. 

The  preacher  was  a  venerable-looking  man,  with  snow-white 
hair,  but  still  clear  and  bright  eyes — a  Mr.  Orsmond,  who  had 
lived  more  than  thirty  years  upon  these  islands,  and  had  been — 
if  I  am  not  mistaken — one  of  the  first  who  taught  the  Christian 
religion  to  the  heathens.  He  was  standing  at  that  pulpit,  preach- 
ing to  his  hearers  the  same  doctrine  he  had  preached  to  them 
thirty  years  before ;  and  I  felt  convinced  he  was  one  of  those 
who  really  believe  themselves  what  they  wish  to  teach  others. 
The  discourses  of  many  other  missionaries  would  have  left  me 
cold  and  indifferent  enough.  The  whole  missionary  system  of 
England,  when  seen  in  the  true  light — who  sends  her  mission- 
aries out  to  foreign  lands,  like  America,  her  pioneers  to  the  West, 
to  gain  ground  for  her — is  only  a  certain  kind  of  business  with 
the  most  of  them — a  calling  by  which,  as  in  commerce  and  trade, 
to  make  a  living. 


358  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

Here,  however,  I  found  a  plain  and  venerable  man,  who  most 
certainly  did  not  look  like  a  fanatic,  much  less  like  a  hypocrite, 
teaching  that  doctrine  which  he  thought  the  best,  and  condemn- 
ing those  native  gods,  whom  the  Supreme  Power  on  high  had 
suffered  to  be  worshiped  through  thousands  and  thousands  of 
years.  This  religion  depriving  the  poor  natives,  at  the  same 
time,  of  their  customs  and  habits,  and  with  the  growth  of  civil- 
ization their  lands  and  property,  was  there  no  hour  when  he 
thought  on  the  responsibility  he  had  taken  upon  himself,  and 
trembled  to  appear  before  God  to  answer  to  the  question:  "Hast 
thou  done  well  ?" 

No,  I  believe  not ;  his  face  looked  bright  and  joyful ;  he  truly 
believed  in  what  he  taught. 

But  these  islands,  like  the  Sandwich  group,  have  to  thank  in- 
tolerant missionaries  for  the  difficulties  they  got  into  with  the 
French  nation — difficulties  that  overthrew  their  whole  policy, 
cost  them  the  independence  of  their  country,  and  brought  death 
and  misery  to  hundreds  of  families.  Many  years  ago  two  Roman 
Catholic  priests  came  from  the  Garnbier  group,  and  preached 
through  the  island  ;  they  taught  the  Christian  religion  in  their 
way,  and,  of  course,  the  Protestant  teachers  did  not  like  the  new 
doctrine  spread  there.  In  the  first  place,  the  Catholics,  who  had 
no  business  in  a  country  where  the  people  had  been  already  gain- 
ed over  to  Christianity,  caused,  for  the  love  of  God,  as  they  said, 
disputes  among  the  chiefs ;  and  the  Protestant  preachers  after- 
ward, in  their  mad,  intolerant  zeal,  excited  the  easily  moved 
natives  more  and  more  by  their  sermons. 

They  broke  into  the  houses  of  the  foreign  teachers,  and  drove 
them  forcibly  on  board  a  small  craft,  to  seek  another  place  of 
residence  at  the  danger  of  their  lives.  The  consequence  of  ex- 
pelling these  priests  was,  that  a  French  frigate  came  to  Papetee, 
and  compelled  the  inhabitants  to  pay  an  exorbitant  sum  of 
money,  and  forced  a  treaty  from  the  Tahitian  government,  which 
permitted  Roman  Catholic  churches  to  be  built,  and  priests  to 
reside  upon  the  islands.  The  French,  however,  gained  an  ac- 
quaintance with  the  islands  by  this,  and  some  years  later  they 
claimed  the  whole,  nearly  maddening  Mr.  Howe  and  some  of  the 
other  missionaries,  by  the  open  pomp  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church. 

But  to  return  to  our  native  church  in  Papetee,  1  felt  sorry 


TAHITI.  359 

enough  at  not  understanding  Mr.  Orsmond's  sermon ;  but  he 
seemed  to  speak  in  a  plain,  natural  manner,  told  them  certainly 
something  which  their  simple  senses  could  easily  comprehend ; 
and,  as  I  heard  afterward,  the  natives  liked  him  very  much. 
But  if  my  ears  did  not  avail  me  much,  my  eyes  had  a  larger 
field  in  watching  the  number  of  Indian  characters,  whom  the 
service  had  assembled  in  this  building. 

Upon  the  nearest  bench  two  Tahitian  beaux  were  sitting,  who 
had  most  certainly  spent  a  considerable  part  of  the  morning  on 
their  toilet.  It  was  amusing  to  see  how  ingeniously  they  had 
united — of  course  aided  in  it  by  the  extraordinary  good  taste  of 
the  missionaries — the  two  different  fashions  of  Europe  and  Ta- 
hiti. In  the  upper  part  they  were  rather  brown-looking,  but 
worthy  members  of  the  Christian  and  civilized  community,  but- 
toned up  in  as  tight  and  incommodious  a  black  dress-coat,  as  is 
worn  in  the  most  enlightened  cities  of  France,  England,  or  Ger- 
many, with  a  white  shirt,  white  waistcoat,  and,  of  course,  white 
cravat,  and  really  white  gloves,  their  hair  combed  and  oiled  in  a 
remarkably  careful  and  studied  manner  ;  but  the  lower  man 
gave  the  death-blow  to  the  upper,  for  it  was  confined,  just  as  if 
to  spite  the  reverend  black  dress-coat,  and  the  white  cravat,  and 
gloves,  in  a  most  extraordinary  red  and  yellow  piece  of  calico, 
from  under  which  the  brown  and  naked  legs,  tattooed  round  the 
calf  with  the  common  blue  tints,  shone  out  as  quietly  and  inno- 
cently into  the  world,  as  if  the  two  black,  sharp  pointed  tails  of 
the  dress-coat,  which  looked  daggers  at  them  from  behind,  did 
not  exist,  and  no  tight  pair  of  pantaloons  threatened  their  future 
happiness. 

I  took  most  interest  in  a  native  woman,  who  sat  right  opposite 
to  me,  and  who  had  listened  very  attentively  to  the  sermon,  all 
the  while  I  had  been  in  church  ;  but  now — as  if  her  thoughts 
had  taken  another  track,  and  were  wandering  far,  far  away  from 
this  place  of  worship — she  looked  with  fixed  eye  and  bent  brow 
down  upon  the  ground,  and  the  compressed  lips  betrayed  some 
emotion  within,  though  her  features  were  so  calm.  She  was  a 
well-formed  but  rather  corpulent  lady,  about  thirty  years  of  age, 
wore  her  long  hair  combed  down  smooth,  and  as  ornament,  only 
a  pair  of  tolerably  large  and  broad  gold  ear-rings.  A  black, 
wide  silk  dress  had  originally  fallen  down  upon  her  ankles ;  but 
now,  as  she  placed  her  foet.  upon  the  bench  she  was  sitting  upon 


360  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

— a  very  common  habit  with  the  Tahitian  women — her  legs 
became  visible  up  to  the  lower  part  of  the  calf,  and  displayed  the 
blue  and  tasteful  tattooing  of  former  days.  Her  eye  was  sudden- 
ly attracted  to  the  delineations  on  her  ankles,  which  had  been 
engraved  upon  her  skin  for  life,  now  forbidden  by  her  new  re- 
ligion. The  tattooing  of  this  part  of  the  body  had  been  in  former 
times  a  sign  of  puberty  among  the  women,  and  did  not  her 
thoughts  fly  back  at  this  moment  to  the  happy  dances  and  sports 
of  her  youth  ;  to  the  festivities,  perhaps,  when  she  quitted  her 
state  of  childhood  for  a  less  happy  one  ?  She  was  plucking  at 
her  fine  silk  dress,  without  thinking  of  the  stuff,  and  one  of  her 
hands,  as  if  unconsciously,  sought  her  ears  ;  but  she  felt  no  sweet- 
scented  flowers  there  now,  only  a  golden  trinket  molten  and 
hammered  in  a  foreign  country  ;  and  throwing  her  dress  over  her 
tattooed  feet  again,  as  if  she  wished  to  shut  out  these  marks  from 
her  sight,  she  took  them  down,  and  bending  her  head  over  her 
folded  hands,  she  was  soon  lost  in  deep  and  fervent  prayer. 

The  sermon  was  ended,  and  the  preacher  commenced  singing 
a  hymn.  He  first  read  a  verse  from  a  Tahitian  prayer-book,  and 
began  the  tune  himself.  The  first  line  he  had  to  sing  alone,  in 
the  second  several  others  joined  with  timid  voices,  but  with  every 
line  the  singers  gained,  as  it  seemed,  more  courage,  and  the 
hymn  commenced  so  timidly,  swelled  up  to  a  full  and  by  no 
means  unmelodious  chorus,  in  which  I  could  easily  distinguish 
first  and  second  voices,  tenor  and  bass,  soprano  and  alto. 

These  Indians  have,  in  fact,  a  very  good  ear  for  music  ;  and 
frequently  during  my  stay  at  Tahiti,  I  saw  in  the  evenings,  four 
young  and  perfectly  raw  natives  squat  down  on  the  corner  of 
some  street,  and  begin — soon  surrounded  by  a  crowd  of  listeners 
— a  melodious  quartette. 

After  a  short  prayer — during  which  the  whole  congregation 
rose  and  turned  their  backs  upon  the  preacher — divine  service 
ended. 

Slowly  walking  home,  and  letting  the  mass  of  the  people  pass 
me,  I  watched  the  retiring  forms  of  the  native  Christians.  Right 
before  me  I  had,  as  I  soon  found  out,  the  sexton  or  sacristan  of 
the  congregation,  a  portly,  stout-set,  and  very  comfortable-looking 
figure,  in  a  long  brown  overcloth,  the  half-tonsure,  which  he 
showed  by  carrying  his  straw-hat  in  his  hand,  giving  him  nearly 
the  look  of  a  fat  monk.  The  men  who  passed  him  saluted  him 


TAHITI.  361 

very  respectfully,  and  he  acknowledged  their  homage  with  a 
broad  benevolent  smile  upon  his  fat  and  glistening  features. 

Oh,  what  would  a  poor,  half-starved,  village  schoolmaster  in 
Germany,  have  given  for  such  a  paunch  as  this  sexton  carried 
under  his  brown  calico  ! — but  no,  how  would  he  ever  have  but- 
toned that  very  paunch  into  his  threadbare,  scanty,  and  yet  so 
long- worn  Sunday  or  week-day  coat  ?  and  what  would  he  have 
done  with  it  afterward  ?  No,  such  a  sacristan's  paunch  was 
never  made  for  a  schoolmaster,  it  belonged  to  the  church,  and 
was  also  only  a  purely  tropical  and  exotic  plant ;  and  what  busi- 
ness had  a  schoolmaster  with  a  stomach  at  all  ? 

The  next  morning  I  paid  Mr.  Orsmond  a  visit.  I  wanted  to 
get  all  the  books  I  could  treating  about  the  language  of  these 
people,  and  Mr.  Orsmond  was  just  the  man  to  give  me  the  best 
information  about  them.  A  dictionary  had  not  been  finished  yet, 
but  was  being  printed  ;  and  he  gave  me  all  the  proof-sheets  that 
had  come  out  up  to  that  day.  He  also  presented  me  with  an  old 
Tahitian  grammar,  and  some  little  tracts,  hymns  and  other 
things ;  and  was  as  kind  to  me  as  if  I  had  not  been  a  perfect 
stranger,  but  an  old  and  beloved  acquaintance.  I  had  not  been 
mistaken  when  I  liked  his  kind,  benevolent  features. 

Mr.  Orsmond,  who  was  formerly  a  missionary,  has  been  em- 
ployed lately,  by  the  French  government,  as  director  of  Indian 
affairs.  He  is  loved  and  respected  by  the  natives  ;  and  speaking 
their  tongue  fluently,  is  well  qualified  for  such  a  post.  This,  of 
course,  has  been  a  thorn  in  the  other  missionaries'  sides.  They 
hate  the  French,  and  every  thing  connected  with  them ;  and  in 
their  intolerance,  do  not  want  to  see  any  body  else,  much  less 
one  of  their  own  order,  think,  and — what  is  worse — act  other- 
wise. 

As  I  remained  some  time  on  the  island,  I  became  acquainted 
with  some  American  captains,  or  skippers,  who  commanded  small 
coasting- vessels  trading  with  the  neighboring  islands,  or  running 
as  they  saw  fit,  or  procured  a  good  freight,  to  Sydney  or  San 
Francisco.  One  evening  we  were  sitting  in  the  American  Hotel, 
playing  a  game  of  euone,  while  nearly  the  whole  native  popula- 
tion of  the  place  was  walking  up  and  down  before  the  house.  It 
was  about  half-past  seven  o'clock,  and  we  heard  the  girls  outside 
laughing  and  talking  with  one  another,  when  there  was  suddenly 
a  quick  repetition  of  }oud  screams  in  a  female  voice.  We  of 

a 


362  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

course  threw  down  our  cards,  and  ran  to  the  door  to  see  what 
was  the  matter.  We  had  not  far  to  go.  Just  before  the  en-, 
trance  we  found  a  group  of  persons,  and  in  the  centre  a  young 
lady  was  hard  at  work,  stripping  herself  of  every  particle  of  dress 
she  had  on ;  and  when  she  had  accomplished  this — a  matter  of 
hardly  five  seconds — she  was  surrounded  by  a  crowd  of  young- 
girls  who  wrapped  their  pareus  around  her.  The  dress  was  left 
untouched  in  the  middle  of  the  street. 

"What,  in  the  name  of  common  sense,  is  the  matter?"  one 
captain  cried,  seeing  that  nobody  would  even  go  near  the  gar- 
ments. 

The  answer  was  short  and  perfectly  satisfactory.  "  A  centi- 
pede !"  the  natives  cried  ;  and  they  all  tried  to  get  their  naked 
feet  as  far  away  as  possible  from  the  place  where  the  much-feared 
insect  was.  The  girl  had  felt  the  monster  inside  her  dress,  and 
nearly  frightened  to  death,  had  only  thrown  off  her  things  as 
quickly  as  possible,  to  get  rid  of  the  danger  of  being  stung  by  this, 
in  fact,  very  poisonous  insect. 

Having  already  a  bottle  full  of  such  enormities,  but  no  centi- 
pede as  yet,  I  gave  chase  ;  arid  gathering  up  the  whole  of  the 
girl's  dress,  without  the  least  remonstrance  from  the  natives,  I 
carried  it,  followed  by  the  two  skippers,  into  the  American  Hotel, 
to  unkennel  the  enemy.  It  was  rather  a  delicate  thing  to  search 
a  lady's  wardrobe  in  such  a  way,  but  a  naturalist  may  go  to 
many  places  where  others  are  not  allowed ;  and  it  was  not  long 
before  we  caught  the  animal — two  searching,  two  holding  can- 
dles, and  the  others  pressing  in  a  perfect  wrall  of  heads  around  it, 
all  ready  to  bolt  at  the  first  sight  of  the  centipede  emerging.  I 
got  it  at  last  in  a  tumbler,  half  full  of  brandy,  and,  with  a  cover 
upon  it,  the  prize  was  safe. 

We  then  returned  the  dress  to  its  owner ;  but  it  required  first 
a  great  many  assertions,  and  the  testimony  of  at  least  eight  or  ten 
witnesses,  before  she  believed  the  centipede  was  really  expelled. 

The  centipedes  are  the  only  poisonous  animals  upon  these 
islands — and  even  these  are  not  of  a  mortally  venomous  charac- 
ter. There  are  no  snakes,  and  only  a  very  small  and  beautiful, 
but  perfectly  harmless  kind  of  lizard.  Mr.  Orsmond  told  me  that 
long  ago  they  had  had  lizards  with  four  tails  on  the  islands,  which 
were  only  found  in  a  certain  valley  about  seven  miles  from  Papetee 
-—and  the  former  Pomare  had  some  caught  for  her — but  none 


TAHITI.  363 

had  been  seen  of  this  species  since  that  time.  In  fact,  there  seem 
to  be  only  very  few  insects  on  the  islands,  except  musquitoes.  I 
very  seldom  saw  even  a  butterfly,  and  none  of  them  pretty. 

Tahiti  had  been  celebrated  in  former  times  for  its  tattooers,  but 
now  the  missionaries  have  brought  it  out  of  fashion,  and  only  full- 
grown  men  and  women  walk  about  with  these  relics  of  a  past 
time.  But  I  felt  very  anxious-  to  see  this  old  custom  practiced 
before  it  died  away  through  civilization,  and  I  was  recommended, 
for  that  purpose,  to  an  old  tattooer — in  fact,  the  most  celebrated 
upon  the  island,  Taitaou — who  lived  about  five  miles  from  town 
down  the  Broom  Road.  I  found  the  old  gentleman  in  his  family 
circle,  and,  in  order  to  take  away  a  remembrance  with  me  from 
Tahiti,  I  determined  on  letting  him  try  his  art  upon  my  shoulder. 

They  use  for  tattooing  almost  always  shark's  teeth,  which  they 
fix  to  a  kind  of  little  rake  about  four  or  five  inches  long,  with  one 
two,  three,  up  to  ten  and  twelve  points.  These  they  hold  upon 
the  skin,  tracing  with  the  left  hand  the  lineaments  upon  it ;  and 
striking  the  rake  three  rapid  blows  with  another  little  stick,  the 
sharp  points  enter  the  skin.  To  give  color  to  the  drawing,  they  only 
employ  the  smoke  of  the  tui-tui-nut — a  very  oily  nut,  which  the 
natives  also  use  as  candles,  putting  several  upon  a  stick  arid 
lighting  them — which  imparts  a  fine  and  delicate- looking  blue 
color.  From  the  noise  the  little  knocker  makes  with  its  tat-tat- 
tat — tat-tat-tat,  the  Indians  have  called  it  tattooing. 

The  operation  itself  is  not  in  the  least  painful,  and  the  draw- 
ing only  swells  next  day  for  a  few  hours — at  least,  such  was  the 
case  with  me. 

Though  I  had  been  some  time  on  the  island  I  had  not  yet  seen 
Queen  Pomare,  except  once  in  the  distance,  riding  on  horseback; 
and  I  am  sure  my  fair  readers  would  like  to  know  something 
about  this,  certainly  historical  lady.  But  there  was  some  diffi- 
culty to  be  overcome  first,  as  Pomare  had  a  sick  relation  in  her 
palace  or  European  house,  and  had  left  it  for  the  sole  use  of  the 
sick  person,  living  during  the  time  in  one  of  the  common  kanaka 
huts,  and  not  receiving  any  visits  from  foreigners.  Mr.  Orsmond 
had  tried  to  gain  admittance  for  me,  but  in  vain.  He  told  me 
also  he  was  at  present  not  upon  a  very  good  footing  with  the 
queen  herself,  but  did  not  say  why ;  but  I  heard  from  others  that 
the  queen  had  been  set  against  him  by  some  of  the  other  mis- 
sionaries on  account  of  his  taking  a  French  situation.  Accident- 


364  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

ally,  I  at  last  found  a  French  soldier  from  Alsace,  who  was 
acquainted  with  Pomare's  sons,  for  he  gave  them  lessons  on  the 
drum,  the  favorite  instrument  of  the  Tahitians,  whom  I  told  to 
recommend  me  to  her  majesty — for  I  was  determined  to  see  her 
— as  a  traveling  musician  from  Germany,  who  had  a  perfectly 
new  instrument  with  him  which  he  wanted  to  show  her — I  was 
very  certain  she  had  never  seen  a  cithern  ;  and  he  promised  to 
do  what  he  could. 

The  next  day,  the  llth  of  February,  I  intended  to  visit  the 
little  island  Motuuta,  a  most  beautiful  spot  in  the  bay  of  Papetee, 
and  formerly  the  summer  residence  of  the  Pomares,  consequently  a 
sacred  spot,  not  to  be  profaned  by  other  feet.  This  also  was  the 
reason  why  H.  Melville,  who  has  given  such  a  beautiful  descrip- 
tion of  this  little  island,  was  not  allowed,  by  the  old  funny  sentry, 
to  land  from  his  canoe  there.  But  the  time  of  the  Pomares  had 
passed,  the  French  had  now  taken  possession  of  this  once  hallowed 
spot,  and  strangers  can  pass  unmolested  to  and  from  it. 

Taking  one  of  the  Indian  canoes  with  an  outrigger — the  first 
time  I  ever  entered  such  a  little  unhandy  craft,  for  the  outrigger 
takes  away  much  of  its  swiftness — I  soon  reached  the  landing- 
place,  having,  however,  to  pick  out  a  channel  through  the  coral, 
which  rises  round  the  island,  nearly  to  the  surface,  and  found  the 
place  as  wild  and  desolate  as  it  had  been  in  former  times  beautiful. 

Toward  the  entrance  of  the  bay  the  French  have  thrown  up 
some  fortifications,  and  a  battery  of  four  thirty-two-pounders  stands 
there.  The  buildings,  formerly  the  residence  of  the  kings,  are 
used  now  for  shipping  store-rooms.  Ropes,  blocks,  chains,  and  a 
hundred  other  stores  are  stowed  away  in  it,  also  ammunition,  I 
believe,  and  broken  and  worn-out  tools  and  implements  lie  scat- 
tered about  every  where.  The  grass  is  trodden  down,  bushes 
have  grown  up  on  the  playgrounds  of  the  children,  and  th« 
cocoa-nut  trees  whisper  their  soft  and  low  wailings  to  the  passing 
breeze. 

Only  an  old  Indian  lives  here,  as  a  kind  of  inspector  over  the 
ship  stores.  The  queen  herself,  who  gave  birth  to  several  children 
upon  this  little  island,  has  riot  set  foot  upon  it  since  the  French 
took  possession  of  it ;  but  her  sons,  it  seems,  do  not  partake  of 
the  same  feelings,  for  they  come  over  frequently,  and  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  meeting  them  all  three  here  on  landing.  I  heard  the 
loud  beating  of  a  drum,  and  following  the  noise,  saw  rny  young 


TAHITI.  365 

Alsacian  with  the  three  princes  around  him,  sitting  upon  an  old 
wooden  cannon,  and  drumming  away  with  all  his  might. 

The  boys  were  about  twelve,  ten,  and  seven  years  of  age,  arid 
fine  little  fellows,  with  bright  large  eyes.  The  young  Alsacian 
related  to  me  the  history  of  the  wooden  cannon,  of  which  I  saw 
six  or  seven  more  upon  the  island.  Several  years  ago  an  English 
vessel  on  trying  to  enter  the  channel  had  run  aground  upon  some 
of  the  reefs,  and  became  a  perfect  wreck ;  and  among  the  spars 
and  timbers  which  drifted  over  the  reefs,  the  French  had  picked 
up  these  cannons,  of  which  the  Englishman  had  had,  I  believe, 
twenty-seven  on  board — but  Lord  knows  for  what  purpose,  except 
to  frighten  somebody. 

The  young  soldier  told  me  he  had  spoken  to  the  queen  about 
me,  and  she  wished  to  see  me  or  my  instrument  the  next  evening. 

I  drifted  slowly  from  the  island  in  my  canoe  with  the  rising 
tide,  without  paddling,  toward  the  shore  again ;  and  below  me, 
between  the  beautifully  formed  coral-reefs,  I  saw,  just  as  at  Emao, 
the  gambols  of  the  tiny  fish,  and  the  wonderful  formations  of  trees 
and  plants  rising  up  from  the  deep,  and  covered,  as  it  were,  with 
a  crystal  frame.  Sea-stars  and  eggs  lay  hidden  under  strange- 
looking  forked  limbs  and  branches,  and  like  a  forest  of  crystallized 
trees,  broad  slopes  of  dark  and  towering  mountain  ridges  lay  below 
me,  crossed  by  deep  blue  cloud-filled  valleys.  Thus  the  aeronaut 
must  feel,  soaring  far  away  over  mountains  and  dales,  while  a 
world  of  forests  and  valleys,  plains  and  lakes  and  cities  vanish 
like  visions  from  his  sight. 

That  afternoon  I  wandered  into  the  mountains,  to  see  their  for- 
mations, and  look  for  some  little  beads  or  berries,  that  grow  here, 
called  bibodios,  bright  red  with  a  little  black  spot  upon  them, 
which  we  sometimes  see  in  Europe.  But  the  rainy  season  pre- 
vented me  from  going  far  up ;  the  mountains  were  covered  with 
a  thick  and  wet  fog,  and  frequent  showers  felt  very  unpleasant  to 
be  caught  in.  I  was  told  these  were  the  very  worst  months  in 
the  whole  year  for  visiting  the  interior. 

The  next  evening,  at  the  appointed  time,  I  met  my  guide,  and 
we  soon  reached  her  majesty's  present  residence,  a  wide  and  com- 
modious, but  simple  hut,  built  of  bamboo,  and  thatched  with  the 
leaves  of  the  pandanus,  resembling  those  of  all  the  other  natives. 

The  eldest  prince  was  sitting  before  the  door,  upon  the  ground, 
eating  his  frugal  supper,  bread-fruit  and  raw  fish ;  and  Pomare's 


366  JOURNEY   ROUND   THE   WORLD. 

daughter — a  young  lady  of  about  twelve  years  of  age,  and  a  twin 
sister  of  the  eldest  boy — came  out  to  meet  us,  and  see  the  instru- 
ment. 

The  queen-mother  was  also  just  eating  her  supper,  and  we  had 
to  wait  a  little  while  ;  but  soon  afterward  we  were  called  in,  and 
I  found  myself  in  the  interior  of  the  palace.  The  inner  room  of 
the  house  had  two  cane  partitions,  forming  three  different  rooms, 
perfectly  divided  by  large  calico  curtains.  The  first  was  a  kind 
of  ante-chamber,  serving  at  the  same  time  as  a  state  and 
bedroom  for  the  queen's  ladies  of  honor ;  the  second  was,  as  it 
seemed,  destined  for  the  children ;  and  the  third  was  the  state 
bed  and  audience  chamber  of  the  queen  herself,  and  her  royal 
consort. 

Pomare  was  seated  by  herself  on  a  mat,  sewing  some  calico. 
Answering  our  "  Toranna,  Pomare,"  very  kindly,  she  invited  us  to 
be  seated ;  and  my  guide  told  her  in  her  language,  which  he  spoke 
fluently,  that  I  had  come  to  pay  her  my  respects,  and  show  her  a 
new  German  instrument,  that  might  please  her.  She  looked  at 
it,  but  with  far  less  curiosity  than  I  had  expected  ;  and,  as  the 
children  and  other  persons  of  her  court  were  pressing  their  noses 
and  eyes  outside  against  the  bamboo- wails  of  the  hut,  trying  to 
catch  a  glimpse  of  us,  or  a  sound  of  the  instrument,  but  not  dar- 
ing to  come  in,  she  asked  me  to  go  out  with  it  before  the  house, 
to  let  all  have  an  opportunity  of  seeing  it,  and  she  would  follow 
us.  Of  course  I  did  as  she  wished  me  ;  and  soon  afterward  she 
appeared  upon  the  threshold  of  her  house,  upon  which  she  set 
down ;  her  husband,  a  young,  fine-looking  Indian,  now  also  ap- 
pearing, and  standing  at  her  side. 

How  many  descriptions  of  this  poor  queen  have  been  circu- 
lated, and  mostly  by  persons  who  know  nothing  about  her,  or 
thought  they  could  well  insult  or  play  a  joke  upon  an  Indian 
queen,  who  lived  so  many  thousand  miles  off,  as  Pomare  !  All 
that  I  heard  and  saw  of  Pomare  here,  in  her  own  residence,  only 
honored  her  in  every  respect.  She  behaved  even  with  dignity, 
though  without  the  least  pride,  toward  strangers  or  her  inferiors. 
Her  figure  is  by  no  means  corpulent,  as  people  have  described  or 
slandered  it.  She  may  be  now  about  forty  years  of  age,  and  is, 
if  not  slender,  certainly  well  made,  and  as  simply  dressed  as  one 
of  her  subjects.  When  I  saw  her,  she  wore  one  of  the  common 
wrappers  which  all  the  women  wear  upon  these  islands,  only  of 


TAHITI.  367 

some  good  light  stuff,  a  silk  handkerchief  round  her  neck,  and  a 
straw-hat,  of  the  same  form  as  those  of  the  men,  upon  her  head. 
Though  riot  beautiful,  she  was  very  good  looking ;  and  if  she  had 
been  a  queen  in  Europe,  she  would  have  been  called  a  beauty. 

It  was  getting  dark  when  I  left  the  royal  couple,  the  children 
hanging  on  to  me,  and  wanting  a  little  more ;  but  I  did  not  wish 
to  tire  Pomare,  and  had  seen  what  I  wanted ;  so  taking  leave  of 
the  queen  and  her  consort,  and  shaking  hands  with  them,  I  went 
back  to  town. 

This  same  week,  a  German  whaler,  the  "  Otaheite,"  came  in 
direct  from  the  Weser.  They  had  only  caught  two  sperm-fish 
on  their  passage  out ;  and  Captain  Wiedring  intended  to  start 
in  about  fourteen  days  for  the  Sandwich  Islands,  to  give  the 
polar  whales  a  call  this  season.  It  was  one  of  the  finest  ships  I 
had  seen  lately,  and  looked  as  clean  and  nice  as  if  it  just  had 
been  taken  out  of  a  box.  With  her  doctor,  a  young  German, 
whose  first  step  in  another  part  of  the  world  had  been  upon 
these  beautiful  shores,  and  who  felt  quite  bewildered  yet,  I  took 
a  trip  into  the  interior,  principally  to  see  the  classical  ground  of 
the  steep  valley  just  above  Papetee,  where  the  natives,  secretly 
supplied  by  foreigners — principally  English  and  American  resi- 
dents— with  fire-arms,  and  favored  by  the  precipitous  cliffs  of 
their  own  mountains,  manfully  resisted  the  whole  force  of  the 
French,  till  they  found  themselves  surrounded  through  the 
treachery  of  some  of  their  own  countrymen,  who  showed  the 
enemy  some  secret  passes  through  the  mountains. 

Following  the  little  stream  up,  we  very  soon  found  ourselves 
in  a  narrow  picturesque  ravine,  on  both  sides  of  which  steep  banks 
arose,  many  hundred  feet  high,  and  thickly  planted  with  shrubs 
and  vines,  even  where  only  a  handful  of  ground  covered  the  over- 
hanging rocks.  A  little  farther  up,  at  a  height  of  many  hundred 
feet,  a  spring  gushed  out  of  the  rock,  right  under  a  few  simple 
cocoa-nut  trees,  and  hurled  itself  in  wild  sport  down  the  cliff. 

The  valley  itself  was  at  first  covered  with  a  nearly  impene- 
trable thicket  of  guaiavas,  with  some  scattered  orange  and  lemon 
trees,  and  a  few  cocoa-nut  trees  here  and  there.  Farther  up  we 
found  the  Tahitian  chestnut,  mape,  wTith  its  large  laurel-like 
leaves  and  the  gray  trunks,  looking  as  if  they  had  a  much  larger 
circumference,  and  were  only  folded  together  to  occupy  less  space. 
Besides  these,  the  large  and  beautiful  we  trees  (the  Indian 


368  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

mango),  which  have  some  likeness  in  growth  and  leaves  to 
our  beech  trees,  and  bear  a  delicious  fruit,  but,  to  my  great  sor- 
row, not  ripe  at  this  time.  The  tui-tui  or  light  nut  tree  with  its 
maple-like  leaves,  we  also  saw  here  in  great  qauntities  ;  and  high 
over  these  the  steep  and  thickly  over-grown  banks  of  the  ravine 
rose  like  immense  walls,  and  upon  their  highest  point  the  eye 
could  sometimes  trace  a  small  group  of  cocoa-nut  trees,  waving 
in  the  breeze,  which  looked  down,  as  it  seemed,  fearfully  into  the 
abyss  at  their  feet ;  while  the  little  sparkling  springs,  which  gush- 
ed out  at  their  giddy  height,  reckless  children  of  the  wilds  as  they 
were,  rushed  past  them,  and  threw  themselves  in  wild  glee  into 
the  valley  below. 

The  road  became  tiresome  here,  for  we  had  to  cross  the 
stream  several  times  ;  and,  though  not  very  deep,  the  strong  cur- 
rent, and  the  smooth  and  slippery  pebbles  which  formed  its  bot- 
tom, offered  much  hindrance,  and  we  could  only  proceed  very 
slowly.  A  few  oranges,  of  which  there  was  an  abundance  every 
where,  refreshed  us  ;  and  climbing  along  on  the  precipitous  bank 
to  look  for  rare  plants,  we  also  found  a  grayish-looking  nut,  much 
resembling  the  American  hickory-nut  in  shape,  which  tasted 
exceedingly  well.  As  we  had  become  hungry  through  our  long 
walk,  we  set  to  and  opened  a  good  quantity  of  them,  which  we 
ate  with  the  greatest  relish.  I  had  eaten  some  forty,  when  I  told 
the  doctor  I  did  not  know  if  I  was  right,  but  the  nuts  seemed  sud- 
denly to  have  a  kind  of  opium-like  taste.  He  assured  me  that  he 
had  himself  fancied  their  taste  rather  narcotic,  and  he  thought  it 
best  to  leave  them  alone  for  awhile,  to  see  how  those  we  had  al- 
ready eaten  agreed  with  us.  And  we  had  not  to  wait  long :  I 
soon  felt  sick,  for  I  had  eaten  about  four  times  as  many  as  the 
doctor,  but  my  strong  constitution  helped  me  safely  out  of  this 
difficulty,  though  for  two  days  afterward,  I  felt  my  limbs  as 
heavy  as  lead,  and  my  head  ached  terribly. 

This  prevented  me  from  leaving  the  town  for  the  next  few 
days,  and  I  only  took  short  walks  through  the  streets  and  over 
the  market-place.  They  have  a  singular  way  of  coming  to 
market  and  bringing  things  in  for  sale.  There  is  no  certain 
hour  to  purchase  any  thing  except  fresh  meat — fresh  pork  every 
day,  and  beef  twice  or  three  times  a  week.  This  the  butchers, 
French  and  Irishmen,  bring  in  at  daylight,  on  account  of  the 
heat  through  the  day,  and  when  the  sun  peeps  over  the  cocoa-nut 


TAHITI.  369 

trees,  he  does  not  find  a  single  bone  left.  At  the  same  time  a 
few  natives  come  in,  some  with  a  bunch  of  bananas,  others  with 
baskets  full  of  oranges,  or  with  a  stick  upon  their  shoulders,  at 
the  ends  of  which  six  or  seven  peeled  cocoa-nuts  are  dangling, 
which  look  exactly  Jike  their  own  frequently  close-shaven  crowns. 
They  squat  down  with  these  few  things  in  the  thatched  and  open 
market-building,  till  they  find  a  purchaser  for  their  fruit,  and 
after  receiving  the  money  for  them,  walk  slowly  away,  perfectly 
satisfied  with  having  done  their  day's  work,  and  hardly  ever  can 
they  be  induced  to  go  even  an  errand  for  the  next  four-and-twenty 
hours.  There  may  be  a  pause  after  this,  and  not  an  orange  to  be 
found  upon  the  market,  till  some  time  afterward  a  couple  of  other 
natives  approach  the  place  leisurely  from  different  sides,  one  with 
a  basket  of  pine-apples,  the  other  carrying  a  stick  with  cocoa-nuts. 
You  may  have  been  waiting  for  these,  for  you  want  to  go  on  board 
some  vessel,  and  wish  to  take  twenty  or  thirty  with  you — you  buy 
those  the  boy  has  brought  in,  and  offer  him  double  the  amount  if 
he  will  go  back  directly  and  bring  you  another  stick-full,  for  it  is 
uncertain  whether  others  may  come  in  again  this  morning,  and 
you  must  go  on  board.  No  matter  he  has  brought  these,  and 
got  his  money  for  them  ;  he  will  come  again  perhaps  to-morrow 
morning,  and  if  you  offer  him  four  times  the  amount,  he  does  not 
want  money,  he  wants  rest,  for  he  has  got  what  money  he  needs 
for  the  day. 

Sometimes  the  whole  market-house  is  crowded  with  fruit  and 
vegetables,  if  they  happen  to  drop  in  accidentally  together,  while 
an  hour  later  not  a  soul  is  to  be  seen  till  others  fill  up  the  places 
of  those  who  have  left,  and  a  person  who  wishes  to  buy  certain 
articles  has  to  sit  down  and  wait  till  they  come  in. 

Fortunately,  there  is  a  law  to  the  effect  that  nothing  brought 
for  sale  into  town  may  be  sold  in  the  street,  but  must  be  carried 
to  this  place,  while  government  at  the  same  time  fixes  the  prices 
for  every  thing  that  is  brought  to  market.  There  is  no  danger 
of  being  over-reached  by  the  sellers. 

Funny  scenes  happened  there  sometimes  when  bonitas — a  fish 
which  the  natives  seem  to  have  a  desperate  partiality  for — were 
brought  to  market.  As  soon  as  the  canoes  reached  land,  there 
were  always  three  or  four  buyers  for  every  fish  they  brought,  or 
could  bring  in,  and  the  fishermen  as  well  as  the  market-master 
have  really  to  watch  the  greedy  customers,  lest  they  tear  the  fish 

0* 


370  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD, 

out  of  their  hands,  before  they  are  half-way.  As  it  is,  one  of  the 
men  from  the  canoe  has  to  take  two  fish,  one  in  each  hand,  and 
walk  with  them  to  the  market-house,  a  distance  of  about  a  hun- 
dred yards,  while  two  or  three  buyers  on  each  side  take  hold  of 
the  fish,  and  frequently  have  a  regular  up-and-down  fight  as  soon 
as  they  step  over  the  boundaries  of  the  place.  The  fisherman  then 
lets  go  his  hold,  watching,  the  combatants  with  a  smiling  counte- 
nance, and  the  one  that  gets  the  fish  has  to  pay  him  the  price  ; 
whereupon  he  walks  back  to  the  beach  to  get  two  more,  repeating 
the  same  scene  over  and  over  again  as  long  as  he  has  any  fish. 

My  little  tailor  had  this  day  some  very  grievous  family  differ- 
ences ;  and  to  give  the  English  reader  a  slight  idea  of  family 
affairs  in  general  in  these  islands,  I  will  relate  the  case.  Little 
Merz  had  taken  to  himself  a  wife  about  two  or  three  days  before, 
and  though  this  is  so  serious  a  step  in  our  country,  they  regard  it 
very  lightly  in  Tahiti,  for  taking  a  wife  and  marrying  her  are 
here  two  widely  different  things.  No,  he  only  had  taken  one  of 
the  numerous  girls  who  come  from  the  country  into  town,  into 
his  house  ;  the  young  lady's  relations,  however,  not  seeming  to 
like  it,  because  they  thought  the  girl  could  do  better  elsewhere 
than  with  a  poor  little  tailor,  wanted  her  back,  and  called  on  him 
for  that  purpose.  He  refused  to  comply  with  their  wishes  ;  and 
they  knew  no  better  way  of  helping  themselves  than  by  calling 
on  the  police,  and  stating  that  the  German  kept  a  native  girl 
against  her  will  in  his  house,  and  asked  the  police  to  make  him 
give  her  up. 

The  relations,  at  the  same  time,  went  back  to  the  tailor,  and 
asked  him  peaceably  again  for  the  girl,  but  they  came  to  the 
wrong  man.  Little  Merz,  who  had  as  hot  blood  in  his  veins  as 
any  tailor  had  in  this  wide  world,  soon  got  impatient,  and  grow- 
ing angry  with  the  impudence  of  the  relations,  ended  by  kicking 
them  out  of  his  front  door,  calling  them  all  kinds  of  names  in  all 
kinds  of  languages.  He  flattered  himself  he  had  been  completely 
victorious,  but  on  entering  his  house  again  and  locking  and  bolt- 
ing the  door,  he  found  that  the  fair  objec-t  of  dispute  had  bolted 
through  the  back  door,  the  relations  having  used  a  stratagem  to 
assail  the  fort  from  two  sides  at  once,  wrhile  the  garrison  was  too 
weak  to  defend  them  both. 

But  the  worst  was  yet  to  come.  While  perfectly  maddened  by 
such  treachery,  and  stamping  up  and  down  his  room,  little  Merz 


TAHITI,  371 

received  a  notice  from  the  French  police-office,  and  after  having 
called  in  a  neighbor,  as  he  was  not  able  to  read  it  himself,  he 
found  himself  ordered  to  set  the  girl  free  immediately  whom  he 
kept  against  her  will  in  his  house.  This  was  too  bad,  and  like 
adding  insult  to  injury.  But  he  was  not  so  easily  frightened. 
He  kicked  oft' his  slippers,  pulled  on  his  boots,  and  slipping  on  his 
other  dress,  he  left  the  house  in  such  a  hurry  as  even  to  forget  to 
shut  his  own  door  ;  but  he  really  found  the  girl  and  brought  her 
back — by  persuasion  and  promises  of  course — in  triumph  to  his 
hearth.  His  honor  was  saved  with  the  neighbors,  and  he  did  not 
care  a  straw  for  the  rest. 

His  happiness  lasted  four  whole  days,  for  this  was  the  time  his 
Dulcinea  required  to  make  up  a  new  frock,  which  Merz  had  to 
buy  her,  which  she  put  on;  and  with  the  old  one  under  her  arm, 
she  left  the  astonished  tailor  one  fine  morning  all  to  himself,  and 
was  never  seen  again. 

This  is  the  most  common  way  of  taking  a  wife  in  this  country, 
and  also  of  losing  her,  though  not  always  so  quickly  ;  but  neither 
party  seems  to  consider  themselves  bound  to  one  another  for  life, 
even  if  the  rites  of  the  church,  or  some  other  ceremonies  which 
they  have  to  that  effect,  are  employed  in  uniting  them. 

There  are  some  few  exceptions,  and  those  poor  girls  must  be 
pitied,  whose  hearts  have  really  been  won  by  the  white  foreign- 
ers. Listening  to  the  old  and  yet  ever-new  stories  of  love,  and 
trusting  to  the  man  they  have  chosen  in  all  their  innocence  of 
heart,  they  only  find  it  afterward  a  sweet  but  short  dream  ;  for 
a  few  months  or  years  they  are  able  to  keep  their  lovers  captive, 
but  no  longer.  Those  Europeans  who  come  here  from  a  colder 
clime,  and  are  enchanted  by  the  first  charms  and  beauties  of  land 
and  people,  live  as  in  a  dream,  and  thinking  their  new  homes  a 
perfect  and  true  paradise,  awake  at  last — their  sensuality  is  sa- 
tiated— and  they  feel  that  nature  alone  will  never  satisfy  their 
aspirations.  They  have  been  educated  for  another  sphere  of  life, 
and  though  they  might  forget  it  for  a  short  space  of  time,  they 
would  never  entirely  resign  it.  The  effect  is  in  such  cases  nearly 
always  the  same,  the  Europeans  re.turn  to  their  own  country — 
business  calls  them  there,  and  they  promise  to  come  back — and 
the  poor  girls  are  left  with  their  children  to  pine  away,  or  forget. 
in  vice  that  ever  a  stranger  came  and  promised  them  truth  and 
protection  for  life. 


372  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

Talking  of  matrimonial  bliss,  I  must  not  forget  to  mention  an 
old  native  lady,  whom  I  frequently  saw  in  the  streets  of  Papetee, 
and  never  could  behold  without  a  shudder.  I  usually  met  her  with 
a  white  and  most  beautiful  little  child  in  her  arms,  and  she  was 
dressed  exactly  like  the  other  women,  but  across  her  face  in  large 
Roman  characters,  the  word  murder  was  tattooed  in  the  common 
manner  with  the  blue  ink  of  the  tui-tui  nut,  the  letters  standing 
upside  down,  the  four  first  upon  the  right,  the  two  last  upon  the 
left  cheek.  I  was  told  this  woman  had  murdered  her  husband, 
but  it  is  dreadful  to  brand  a  person  in  such  a  way,  and  then 
suffer  her  to  live. 

I  visited  the  interior  as  often  as  I  could,  or  the  weather  per- 
mitted, for  there  was  hardly  a  day  without  one  good  shower,  and 
the  clouds  extended  from  the  tops  of  the  mountains  far  down 
into  the  valleys ;  but  these  islands  have  not  much  variety,  each 
little  spot  is  nearly  overladen  with  beauties,  and  that  which 
causes  the  stranger  ecstasy  at  first  sight  grows  soon  familiar, 
and  at  last  wearisome.  The  change  is  wanting  in  these  tropi- 
cal climes — there  is  no  autumn  with  its  dropping  leaves  and 
decaying  nature,  no  sharp  winter-frost  to  nerve  our  bodies  again 
to  fresh  vigor,  no  snowy  fields  by  which  to  forget  for  awhile 
the  green  plains  of  summer,  and  the  sweet-scented  flowers  of  a 
warmer  season ;  and  above  all,  there  is  no  sweet,  sweet  spring 
when  we  greet  with  joy  each  budding  leaf,  each  blossom  of  the 
fields — the  stranger  who  enjoys  these  pleasures  each  year  anew 
here  feels  them  only  once — and  never  again.  As  the  tree  stands 
now  there,  with  its  blossoms  and  fruits,  so  it  will  stand  the  whole 
year,  no  change  in  its  leaves  or  aspect  is  visible,  and  as  warm 
and  genial  as  the  air  now  is,  so  it  will  be  throughout  the  season, 
or  the  year ;  and  oh  !  how  much  would  a  man  give  at  last,  for 
an  honest,  hearty  snow-storm  of  the  old  mother-country !  It  is  a 
singular  fact,  but  there  is  no  place  like  home  ;  and  as  many  lands 
and  climates  as  I  had  yet  seen,  home  had  always  been  the  sweet- 
est spot  to  me. 

But  it  was  time  to  think  of  my  departure  from  these  islands. 
I  had  a  long  voyage  before  me,  half  the  world,  and  many  coun- 
tries yet  to  see,  while  time  passed,  and  the  period  I  had  intended 
to  remain  away  from  Germany  had  nearly  elapsed.  So  looking 
out  for  a  vessel  to  take  me  to  Sydney — the  next  place  where  I 
was  sure  of  finding  money  again,  as  my  cash  began  to  get  very 


TAHITI.  373 

low — I  at  first  found  no  other  vessel  but  a  little  bit  of  a  schooner 
hardly  larger  than  a  long-boat,  a  craft  of  eighteen  tons,  the 
"  Flinders,"  which  was  going  to  sail  in  two  or  three  days  for 
Port  Jackson.  I  intended  to  take  passage  in  her,  but  next  day  a 
good-looking  brig,  the  "  Emma  Prescott,"  from  San  Francisco 
came  in,  also  bound  for  the  same  port,  and  with  "  fine  accommo- 
dations for  cabin  and  deck  passengers" — the  old  story ;  and  as 
the  crew  of  the  "Flinders,"  captain,  mate,  and  two  sailors  quar- 
reled continually,  and  did  not  seem  at  all  to  agree  as  to  the 
time  of  starting,  I  engaged  my  passage  on  board  the  "Emrna 
Prescott,"  receiving  notice  at  the  same  time  to  be  on  board  of  her 
that  same  evening  as  she  intended  to  start  very  early  next  morn- 
ing. But  I  was  not  to  be  frightened  into  going  on  board  a  ves- 
sel so  quickly  :  knowing  what  their  early  starting  usually  meant, 
I  determined  on  waiting  at  least  till  the  fbretopsail  was  set,  and 
so  I  did,  and  had  two  days'  time. 

There  were  no  French  men-of-war  at  this  time  in  the  harbor, 
the  whole  fleet  being  out  upon  an  expedition  of  discovery  through 
the  neighboring  islands,  principally  the  Marquesas  group,  of 
which  they  have  also  taken  possession.  Of  the  Society  Islands 
they  at  present  only  hold  Tahiti  and  Ernao,  for  the  other  islands 
of  the  group  declared  their  then  viceroys — as  soon  as  the  French 
took  possession  of  Pomare's  dominions — their  independent  mon- 
archs,  and  put  themselves  under  the  protection  of  the  Americans 
and  English. 

Pomare,  as  I  was  told,  receives  a  yearly  appanage  from  the 
French  government  of  twenty-five  thousand  francs. 

But  really  there  is  the  fore-topsail  flying,  the  men  are  working 
away  at  the  anchor,  and  a  fine  breeze  promises  a  quick  passage 
out.  My  luggage  is  on  board,  as  well  as  a  large  quantity  of 
oranges,  young  cocoa-nuts,  lemons,  bananas,  pine-apples,  and 
red  pepper,  and  it  is  high  time  for  me  to  pull  on  board,  too. 

I  had  hardly  left  my  canoe,  when  the  anchor  came  home, 
sails  flapped,  the  crew  singing,  and  the  pilot  bawling  through 
the  noise.  Up  we  came — the  entrance  was  right  before  us — 
now  we  passed  the  first,  now  the  second  buoys.  How  the  reefs 
foamed  to  our  right  and  left !  Now  they  lay  in  our  wake.  To- 
ranna — toranna,  my  fair  isles  !  I  shall  never  see  you  again  ! 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

PASSAGE    FROM    TAHITI    TO    SYDNEY. 

THE  "  Emma  Prescott"  was  an  American  vessel,  sent  out  with 
passengers  to  San  Francisco,  and  was  sold  there.  Some  English 
merchants  had  bought  her,  put  a  kind  of  supercargo,  a  Mr.  Fligg, 
on  board  ;  engaged  a  captain  and  crew,  with  a  cook — an  old 
Australian  convict,  who  worked  his  passage  out — took  some  pas- 
sengers, one  in  the  cabin  and  two  in  the  steerage,  and  sent  her  to 
sea. 

And  the  "  Emrna  Prescott"  was  a  true  specimen  of  all  such 
vessels  sold  in  San  Francisco.  She  had  been  stripped  by  her 
former  owners  of  nearly  every  thing  but  the  standing  rigging. 
There  was  no  spare  stick  or  sail,  no  barometer,  no  telescope 
— in  fact,  nothing  on  board  but  what  they  had  to  sail  with,  and 
could  not  do  without.  Not  wishing  to  buy  any  thing  in  San 
Francisco,  where  things  were  dearer  of  course  than  in  Sydney, 
they  had  sent  this  vessel  adrift,  in  ballast  only,  in  a  most  repre- 
hensible manner  ;  and  if  any  thing  had  happened  on  the  voyage 
to  our  masts  or  spars,  we  should  have  been  really  in  a  bad  pre- 
dicament. 

Being  short  of  money,  I  took  a  steerage  passage,  the  supercargo 
asking  ten  pounds  for  it — the  same  amount  the  other  passengers 
paid  from  California  to  Sydney — adding,  that  he  had  to  charge 
so  high  a  price  because  provisions  were  dear  in  Tahiti,  and  he 
had  to  lay  in  a  good  stock  of  them.  It  was  all  false,  for  he  did 
not  lay  in  a  single  dollar's  worth  of  provisions.  Even  the  most 
necessary  things  the  steward  had  marked  down  on  a  paper — as 
sugar,  lemon-juice,  and  vinegar — he  did  not  buy ;  and  for  four- 
teen days  at  sea  there  was  no  sugar,  for  three  days  longer  no 
vinegar,  and  so  on.  The  worst  was  the  water,  having  only  four 
small  barrels  on  board  ;  and  too  stingy  to  get  at  least  one  or  two 
more  small  water-casks  in  Tahiti,  this  fine  specimen  of  a  super- 


PASSAGE  FROM  TAHITI  TO  SYDNEY.  375 

cargo  would  have  been  the  ruin  of  us  during  a  three  weeks' 
calm,  if  some  accidental  showers  had  not  saved  us. 

I  am  very  easily  satisfied  with  any  thing  to  eat — and  when  on 
board  a  ship,  I  consider  the  passage  the  main  thing,  and  provi- 
sions and  water  only  necessary  evils  to  keep  life  in ;  but  even  I 
could  not  eat  the  meat  and  bread  on  board — at  least,  with  appe- 
tite— and  I  lived  the  whole  time  upon  some  cocoa  and  pilot- 
bread,  the  last  barrel  also  getting  mouldy. 

The  captain  himself  was  a  gentleman ;  but  he  could  do 
nothing  with  the  supercargo,  and  left  the  ship  as  soon  as  we 
arrived  at  Sydney. 

After  a  four  weeks'  passage,  even  our  fuel  wras  expended,  and 
the  cook  had  to  saw  off  a  couple  of  old  pieces  of  timber,  which 
had  been  left  with  the  ballast  in  the  ship's  hold ;  and  we  drifted 
along  in  a  succession  of  light  breezes  that  lasted  usually  only 
four  or  five  hours,  and  calms  sometimes  four  and  five  days  at  a 
stretch. 

The  21st  of  March,  a  fine  steady  beeeze  at  last  came.  There 
had  been  some  talk  on  board  of  trying  to  make  Norfolk  Island, 
to  be  kept  from  starving  and  dying  for  want  of  water ;  but  with 
the  breeze,  every  thought  of  it  passed  away — we  only  wanted  to 
get  to  Sydney,  and  escape  from  this  "floating  penitentiary,"  as 
the  men  began  to  call  her. 

On  the  22d,  with  the  same  rattling  breeze,  we  came  in  sight 
of  Norfolk  Island,  where  the  finest  pines  in  the  whole  world 
grow.  Young  trees  of  this  species  have  been  taken  over  to  Val- 
paraiso, where  they  willingly  paid  six  arid  eight  ounces  for  trees 
about  ten  or  fifteen  feet  high ;  and  even  on  Tahiti,  I  saw  one  in 
the  garden  of  a  Doctor  Johnson.  Norfolk  Island  is,  at  the  same 
time,  one  of  the  severest  convict  settlements  of  Great  Britain. 
If  women  can  make  a  paradise  out  of  a  wilderness,  men  can 
change  a  paradise  into  a  hell. 

On  the  25th,  the  breeze  which  drove  us  along  on  our  course, 
nearly  grew  into  a  gale.  We  had  to  reef  our  topsails,  scudding 
along  beautifully ;  but  the  brig  did  not  run  well — and  yet  she 
looked  as  if  she  could  have  done  a  great  deal  better.  The  cap- 
tain thought  she  was  not  quite  in  the  right  trim,  for  even  with 
this  gale  we  could  only  get  seven  and  seven  miles  and  a  half  out 
of  her. 

We  were  four  steerage  passengers  on  board — two  Irishmen,  one 


376  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

of  these  a  young  merchant,  the  other  a  carpenter,  a  young  Aus- 
tralian, born  of  course  of  English  parents,  and  myself.  The  car- 
penter, a  true  wild  Irishman,  was  as  good  and  honest  a  fellow  as 
ever  lived,  the  young  merchant  the  same,  but  the  Australian,  who 
had  come  on  board  in  Papetee,  was  just  as  slovenly  and  lazy.  The 
carpenter  and  I  messed  together,  and  the  two  others  did  the 
same  ;  but  the  carpenter  did  not  like  them,  for  some  reasons  of 
his  own,  and  there  was  a  continual  quarrel  between  them,  till  it 
broke  out  one  day  in  open  hostilities,  the  cause  being  religion 
again.  The  Australian  and  the  young  Irish  merchant  had  talk- 
ed rather  freely  about  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  the 
carpenter,  one  of  the  old  school,  who  stuck  to  his  church  and 
priest  with  heart  and  soul,  told  them  to  mind  their  own  business 
and  leave  the  church  alone  ;  but  the  Australian,  perhaps  to  spite 
him  a  little,  commenced  again  arid  again,  and  at  last  they  came 
to  talk  about  the  priests.  The  carpenter  was  getting  hot  now, 
but  commencing  to  argue  with  them,  he  found  the  ground  giving 
way  under  him ;  so  to  settle  the  matter,  and  just  as  the  young 
merchant  had  said  something  against  the  respectability  of  the 
priests,  he  knocked  him  down,  and  the  Australian  could  hardly 
jump  up  quick  enough,  to  find  himself  flattened  in  the  other 
corner. 

No  argument  in  the  world  could  have  had  a  better  effect  than 
this,  and  religion  was  never  mentioned  again  on  board  the  vessel 
among  these  three. 

The  gale  did  not  last  long  :  the  same  night  we  shook  the  reefs 
out  of  the  top-sails,  and  next  morning  carried  top-gallants  again, 
going  before  the  wind  with  a  rattling  breeze.  And  we  wanted 
it,  hardly  any  bread,  bad  meat,  and  some  peas,  being  the  only 
things  to  eat  on  board,  and  besides  this  a  short  allowance  of  water. 

Twelve  o'clock  on  the  27th,  we  were  not  quite  two  degrees 
from  Port  Jackson  ;  in  the  evening  at  nine,  we  saw  the  light  of 
the  port,  and  not  three  hours  later,  had  made  the  heads,  keeping 
to  the  south  of  them  a  little,  and  got  even  in  the  night  a  pilot  on 
board — another  harbor  I  entered  in  the  dark.  An  hour  later  I 
heard  the  most  glorious  music  after  a  long  and  tedious  voyage — 
a  music  that  gladdens  our  hearts,  like  the  warbling  of  the  first 
rising  lark  in  early  spring — the  rattling  down  of  the  heavy  chain 
to  the  bottom ;  and  our  ship  swinging  round,  came  to  an  anchor 
right  opposite  the  government-house. 


PASSAGE  FROM  TAHITI  TO  SYDNEY.  377 

The  next  morning  I  was  up  and  on  deck  by  daybreak,  for  I 
felt  anxious  to  see  a  harbor  I  had  heard  so  much  of.  The  English 
boast  that  it  is  the  securest  and  most  beautiful  in  the  world,  and 
I  was  afraid  I  should  feel  disappointed,  as  it  had  been  exactly  the 
same  case  at  Tahiti ;  but  I  must  acknowledge  that  I  have  seen 
few  places  in  the  world  that  made  a  more  pleasing  impression 
upon  me,  than  Port  Jackson. 

The  scenery  is  not  so  magnificent  as  at  Bio  de  Janeiro  or  even 
New  York,  because  a  background  is  wanting ;  but  the  low,  though 
steep  and  rocky  banks  of  the  bay,  with  the  light  yellow  of  the 
stones,  set  off  most  advantageously  by  the  lively  green  of  the 
thick  bushes  and  saplings  that  covered  them  as  with  a  swelling 
carpet ;  the  friendly,  homely  houses,  scattered  through  shady 
parks,  and  beautiful  little  valleys  along  the  shore,  and  even  the 
peculiar  shape  of  the  vegetation,  in  which  each  country  has  its 
own  character ;  the  high  slender  stems  and  straight  out-stretch- 
ing branches,  with  some  scattered  Norfolk  pines  in  their  beauti- 
ful symmetry  between  them,  imparted  an  indescribable  attraction 
to  the  whole  scene. 

I  do  not  think,  at  the  same  time,  that  there  is  a  securer  har- 
bor in  the  world,  and  it  has  room  enough  for  all  the  ships  afloat. 

At  this  time  there  were  not  many  vessels  in  the  harbor,  but 
among  the  few  was  a  Spanish  man-of-war.  At  eight  o'clock  the 
sanitary  boat  came  alongside,  and  in  half  an  hour  I  had  jumped 
into  one  of  the  watermen's  boats,  which  came  out  to  us  in  num- 
bers, and  soon  after  walked  with  a  feeling  I  would  be  at  a  loss 
to  describe,  upon  Australian  ground,  and — paved  streets  again. 


AUSTRALIA, 

CHAPTER  I. 

SYDNEY    IN    APRIL,    1851. 

AUSTRALIA  ! — A  peculiar  thrill  went  through  my  nerves  when 
I  first  touched  that  ground,  for  which  I  had  felt  for  a  long  time 
— and  particularly  since  reading  Mr.  Rowcroft's  "  Adventures  in 
Van  Dieman's  Land"— a  kind  of  strange  yearning — I  will  not  say 
to  live  there — but  to  see  it,  to  travel  awhile  among  those  sin- 
gularities of  the  soil,  that  collection  of  natural  curiosities,  where 
the  Almighty  had  made  quadrupeds  with  bird's-bills.  and  birds 
with  hair,  cherries  with  the  stone  outside,  and  trees  that  shed 
their  bark  instead  of  the  leaves.  In  addition  to  this,  black  cock- 
atoos and  swans,  and  above  all  the  mysterious  animal  the  bun- 
yip,  which  was  said  to  live  in  the  lakes,  and  even  the  channel  of 
the  Murray  and  Murrumbidgee.  How  romantic  that  name 
already  sounded  !  What  more  could  I  desire,  to  have  a  new, 
wild  life  before  me  ! 

But  it  was  not  this  alone  ;  I  had  left  as  with  one  step  another 
world.  Land,  climate,  soil,  scenery,  inhabitants,  vegetation,  hab- 
its, customs,  dress,  even  the  color  of  the  skin,  had  changed  as  if 
by  magic  ;  the  waving  palms  no  longer  nodded  with  their  grace- 
ful and  feathery  leaves  above  my  head ;  the  rolling  thunder  of 
the  breakers,  the  rustling  of  the  broad  banana-leaves,  the  merry 
laugh  and  song  of  the  always  happy,  always  friendly  Indians,  no 
longer  gladdened  my  ear.  Like  a  straight  and  carefully-cut  yew- 
hedge,  the  whole  country,  with  its  singular  and  regular  tree-tops, 
and  the  town  with  its  broad  and  rectangular  streets,  lay  around 
me  ;  while  the  broad  Irish  brogue,  and  the  London  cockney  dia- 
lect, seemed  to  strike  me  every  where  with  so  much  greater  force, 


AUSTRALIA.  379 

as  the  ear  had  not  yet  forgotten  the  soft  melodious  sounds  of  the 
Tahitian's  far  more  musical  language.  f 

Sydney  has,  in  fact,  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  romance  ;  for 
there  is  hardly  a  place  in  the  world — even  the  Yankee  States,  or 
California  not  excepted — where  you  would  find  a  more  thorough- 
ly business  life  than  here.  Pounds  and  shillings  are  the  only 
magical  words  able  to  enliven  the  features  of  all  those  who  sur- 
round the  stranger  ;  and  while  the  shillings  become  pounds  with 
the  always  active,  speculating,  and  careful  merchants,  the  stran- 
ger, who  has  come  over  here  to  see,  finds  it  is  exactly  the  contrary 
with  him.  His  pounds  become  shillings,  and  he  is  bored  nearly 
to  death  with  the  eternal  and  never-ending  conversations  about 
wool  and  shipping. 

On  entering  Sydney  the  stranger  has,  at  the  same  time,  nearly 
always  to  overcome  a  prejudice,  which  has  grown  up  with  him, 
and  could  only  gain  strength  during  a  residence  in  California, 
that  of  entering  a  convict  settlement,  arid  the  idea  of  having 
been  suddenly  thrown  into  a  perfect  collection  of  murderers, 
thieves,  housebreakers,  and  other  desperate  characters.  Some 
persons  are  perfectly  astonished  at  finding  their  handkerchief, 
after  an  hour's  walk  still  in  their  pockets ;  arid  yet  how  little 
cause  they  have  for  it.  Sydney  of  course,  has  been  a  convict 
settlement,  and  the  man  who  comes  here  with  all  kind  of  wild 
suspicions  may  meet,  as  likely  as  not,  a  few  more  suspicious- 
looking  faces  in  New  South  Wales  than  elsewhere,  but  that  would 
be  most  certainly  all  ;  and  if  such  a  population  was  once  here, 
it  is  gone  now,  or  if  not  gone,  has  been  lost  among  the  emigrants 
who  have  flocked  in  thousands  to  Australia's  shores ;  and  it  would 
take  a  "knowing  cove"  to  tell  a  former  "government-man"  from 
a  gentleman  merchant. 

And  this  amalgamation  of  the  two  different  classes  of  society 
has  not  merely  taken  place  externally.  Those  people  driven  in 
the  old  country — only  too  frequently  by  want  and  oppression — 
to  actinos,  which  they  would  never  have  committed  under  other 
circumstances,  found  here  another  life — found  the  possibility  of 
living ;  and  after  serving  out  their  time,  of  becoming  good  citi- 
zens. It  was  not  necessary  for  this  class  to  repent  of  what  they 
had  done,  or  were  punished  for.  They  had  repented  of  their  ac- 
tions, perhaps,  from  the  outset,  and  are  now  as  good  and  honest 
people  as  those  who  frequently  look  down  upon  them  with  a  sneer. 


380  JOURNEY   ROUND   THE  WORLD. 

Even  those  who  committed  crimes,  with  a  full  consciousness  of 
what  they  did,  afterward  found  here  the  cause  removed,  through 
which  they  became  felons  in  their  own  country ;  and  the  best 
and  most  honest  servants  in  the  interior,  as  I  have  been  told  by 
a  great  many  old  inhabitants,  are  convicts. 

There  is  one  advantage  for  these  men  here — nobody  asks  in 
this  country  what  a  man  has  been — the  past  is  forgotten  ;  if  they 
have  done  wrong,  they  have  also  suffered  for  it ;  and  if  they  be- 
have properly  now,  they  are  respected.  The  most  respectable, 
or  at  least  a  very  respectable  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  Sydney, 
have  also  been  born  in  Australia,  a  great  many  of  them  of  con- 
vict parents  ;  and  who  knows,  whether  in  later  years  they  may 
not  form  a  new  kind  of  nobility  in  Australia,  their  children  and 
childrens'  children  counting  in  centuries  to  come,  so  and  so  many 
ancestors  ?  A  great  many  of  our  nobles  would  find  that  their 
forefathers  had  been  engaged  in  exactly  the  same  occupations. 

In  Sydney,  not  being  acquainted  in  the  place,  I  had  at  first 
some  difficulty  in  finding  a  good  boarding-house  ;  and  I  passed 
many  of  them,  all,  without  exception  having  a  noisy  gin-smelling 
bar  in  the  lower  room.  At  last  I  followed  the  old  rule  in  a  strange 
place,  of  always  going  into  the  best  lodgings  you  can  find,  for  they 
are  commonly  not  dearer  than  others,  and  most  certainly  better. 
I  therefore  took  my  luggage  to  the  Royal  Hotel,  but  I  soon  found 
I  had  been  mistaken  this  time.  The  Royal  Hotel — to  be  done 
with  it  at  once — is  a  large,  crazy  building  in  George  Street,  the 
main  street  of  Sydney,  in  the  rear  nearly  split  to  pieces,  and 
only  held  together,  as  it  seems,  by  a  number  of  iron  cross-bars, 
every  minute  ready  to  let  a  part  of  the  wall  drop  out.  The  ac- 
commodations were  very  indifferent.  I  got  stowed  away  in  the 
fourth  story,  with  hardly  any  boarders  in  the  house,  had  a  very 
poor  table,  hardly  any  attendance,  and  paid  forty-four  shillings 
a  week ;  while  they  were,  as  I  found  afterward,  just  as  good, 
and  even  better  places  for  half  that  money.  But  this  is  only  en 
passant. 

My  first  occupation  was  to  write  home,  for  I  had  had  no  chance 
of  sending  a  letter  direct  for  a  long  while  ;  and  several  ships  were 
advertised,  just  at  this  time  for  London.  While  sitting  one  even- 
ing in  my  little  room,  a  dull  noise  carne  up  to  me  from  below ; 
and  on  opening  my  window,  which  had  a  beautiful  prospect  over 
the  rear  of  an  iron  foundry,  besides  the  benefit  of  hearing  the  ham- 


AUSTRALIA.  381 

mering  all  day,  I  could  easily  recognize  all  the  sounds  of  a  very 
lively  meeting,  the  bravos,  and  stampings,  and  cheers,  and  through 
the  uproar  sometimes  the  loud  and  thundering  voice  of  the  speaker. 

Dropping  my  pen — for  I  was  determined  on  seeing  what  they 
fought  for — I  went  down,  and  hearing  it  was  an  anti- transpor- 
tation meeting,  held  in  the  same  house,  and  public  at  the  same 
time,  I  entered  the  room,  and  found  myself  the  next  minute  in  a 
crowded  hall,  and  among  a  tolerable  wild  assembly. 

But  the  meeting,  as  I  soon  found,  was  not  directly  against 
transportation  itself,  but  in  this  case  only  against  a  proposed  bill 
of  the  English  government  by  which,  as  the  speakers  declared, 
the  electing  districts  of  New  South  Wales  were  most  unjustly 
divided,  to  give  the  squatters  in  the  interior  a  decided  preponder- 
ance over  Sydney.  This  bill  must  have  been,  if  one  of  the  speak- 
ers was  right,  who  had  become  rather  heated  by  the  thundering 
applause  of  the  meeting,  "the  most  infamous,  unjust,  treacherous 
and  diabolical  measure"  imaginable,  and  the  whole  meeting  was 
unanimously  against  it. 

The  squatters  in  the  north  and  west  were,  on  the  contrary,  in 
favor  of  transportation  to  Australia,  because  they  could  get  no 
laborers  otherwise ;  while  Sydney,  Melbourne,  Adelaide  and  Van 
Dieman's  Land,  breathe  fire  and  flame  against  it,  and,  as  I  think, 
with  perfect  justice. 

In  former  times,  when  Australia  was  a  wild  and  unsettled 
country,  England  was  justified,  by  the  law  of  our  civilized  na- 
tions at  least,  in  sending  a  population  of  convicts  to  a  land,  where 
the  people  had  not  as  yet  fabrics  and  manufactures,  and  walked 
about  in  a  black  skin  ;  but  now  the  case  was  widely  different.  A 
young  white  population  had  grown  up  in  the  new  country,  who 
called  the  land  their  home  ;  and  if  the  sovereignty  was  claimed 
by  a  distant  state,  that  state  had  no  right  whatever  to  pollute 
their  homes  with  ship-loads  of  felons. 

But  the  gold  discovery  has  altered  the  whole  relations  ;  and 
England  will  never  again  try  to  send  convicts  over  to  either  of 
these  colonies,  except  perhaps  to  the  Swan  River  districts,  till  they 
manage  to  find  gold  too. 

The  meeting  went  off  very  quietly,  though  a  good  many  things 
were  said  in  it  strong  enough  for  a  royal  colony.  Our  German 
police,  if  such  things  had  happened  in  our  country,  would  most 
certainly  ha,ve  had  their  fingers  in  the  pie,  and  made  as  much 


382  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

of  it  as  possible  ;  but  the  Sydney  police  had  more  sense,  or,  what 
is  the  same  thing',  knew  better. 

I  was  recommended  to  Mr.  Dreutler,  a  merchant  in  Sydney, 
and  was  received  by  him  in  a  most  friendly  manner.  The  next 
Sunday  we  went  out  together  to  the  light-house,  to  which  a  most 
beautiful  road  along  the  shore  of  the  bay  led.  But  the  shore  of 
the  bay  seemed  to  have  concentrated  the  whole  beauty  of  the 
country  along  its  banks  ;  for  only  half  a  mile  back  a  white  sandy 
soil  with  green  bushes  and  grass-trees  commenced,  and  looked 
the  very  reverse  of  picturesque. 

The  light-house  itself  is  built  upon  the  high  and  very  steep  cliff 
of  the  southern  head  of  Port  Jackson,  and  has  a  revolving  light 
consisting  of  nine  lamps,  visible  at  sea  for  thirty  miles. 

The  next  morning,  I  walked  through  town,  looking  at  the 
shops — and  some  of  them  are  really  worth  looking  at — and  won- 
dering what  an  old  native  black  would  say  if  he  had  been  a  good 
while  in  the  interior,  and  came  back  to  a  place  where  he  him- 
self, as  likely  as  not,  had  hunted  kangaroos  and  emus,  and  now 
found  streets  like  George  Street,  paved  and  gas-lighted,  and  in 
fact,  the  whole  thing  a  wholesale  miracle  studded  with  little 
miracles.  I  suddenly  heard  myself  saluted  in  another  name,  in 
a  most  kind  and  friendly  mariner,  by  an  old  gentleman,  with  a 
rather  thread  bare,  but  clean  and  decent  dress-coat,  a  thick  gold 
watch-chain,  a  large  heavy  seal,  and  a  brown  silk  umbrella, 
with  which  he  seemed  to  have  been  walking  on  the  sunny  side  of 
the  street. 

I  thanked  him,  and  told  him  that  he  had  been  under  a  mis- 
take in  the  person,  for  my  name  was  not  Wentrow,  or  any  thing 
of  the  sort.  I  thought  every  thing  right,  and  was  going  to  fol- 
low my  old  course  ;  but  my  new  acquaintance  thought  otherwise. 
He  first  apologized  more  than  was  necessary  for  the  mistake.  It 
was  wonderful  how  I  resembled  this  Mr.  Wentrow  !  And  I  had 
really  no  relation  of  that  name  ? — No  !  Well,  but  since  he  had 
addressed  me,  and  consequently  taken  up  some  of  my  most  valu- 
able time,  he  wanted  to  give  me  an  equivalent  for  the  loss,  and 
this  was  as  follows  :  Only  a  few  days  before — and  he  took  me  at 
the  same  time  by  one  of  my  buttons,  and  pulled  me  into  the  near- 
est entrance — he  had  received  a  small  lot — unfortunately,  only 
too  small — of  galvanic — the  reader  must  excuse  me,  but  I  have 
really  forgotten  the  most  terrible  Chaldaic  name  that  ever  grated 


AUSTRALIA.  383 

upon  my  ears — and  he  felt  exceedingly  pleased  at  being  able  to 
let  me  have  one  of  them.  The  price  of.it  was  a  mere  trifle — 
only  3s.  6d. — and  not  worth  talking  of;  and  if  I  would  allow 
him,  he  would  show  me  a  specimen  of  it. 

I  felt  particularly  pleased  at  the  gentleman's  thinking  he  had 
me,  while,  in  fact,  I  had  him  ;  for  he  was  a  character,  and  I 
wanted  to  make  the  most  of  him.  He  soon  produced  a  little 
morocco-case  from  his  rather  roomy  pocket,  opened  it,  and  asked 
me  to  smell  it. 

I  was  perfectly  right  in  thinking  it  sal  ammoniac,  and  holding 
it  rather  carefully,  and  a  little  sideways,  up  to  my  nose,  I  soon 
satisfied  myeslf.  But  this  would  not  do  for  him.  I  must  sme]l 
strongly  at  it ;  and  I  looked  for  the  first  time  suspiciously  at  the 
gentleman.  If  I  had  taken  a  powerful  smell  at  the  bottle  it 
would  have  knocked  me  over.  But  I  wronged  him,  he  looked 
weak,  such  had  never  been  his  intention  ;  and  I  now  inquired 
very  anxiously  the  nature  and  qualities  of  this  little  bottle. 

I  had  lit  upon  a  fortune.  There  existed  at  this  present  time 
really  no  known  sickness,  even  deadly  fractures  not  excepted, 
able  to  withstand  this  thing  with  the  galvanic  monster  name — 
it  subdued  them  all ;  it  had  quite  the  same  effect  upon  the  dif- 
ferent pains  and  aches — for  instance,  gout,  toothache,  inflamma- 
tions of  the  liver,  bowels  or  brains — no  matter  which — disloca- 
tions, &c.,  the  result  being  as  wonderful  and  interesting  as  the 
application  was  simple.  You  had  only  to  smell,  according  as 
your  sufferings  were  of  a  deeper  or  slighter  nature,  stronger  or 
more  gently  at  the  bottle,  and  away  they  went.  There  was  a 
remedy  for  you,  and  only  3s.  Qd. ! 

I  was  perfectly  charmed  at  the  medicine — it  was  a  blessing  for 
the  human  race — for  the  world ;  but  the  little  gentleman  com- 
menced growing  impatient — I  was  too  credulous.  Nobody  had 
yet  asked  him  such  a  quantity  of  questions,  or  had  been  louder 
in  the  praise  of  that  little  bottle,  I  am  sure,  and  still  no  money. 
We  might  have  been  standing  about  three  quarters  of  an  hour  in 
the  entry,  when  he  tried  to  come  to  a  point,  and,  pressing  the  lit- 
tle bottle  upon  me,  wanted  the  cash.  The  rest  is  soon  told.  I 
felt  very  sorry  indeed  at  not  having  at  this  minute  either  tooth- 
ache, or  inflammation  of  the  lungs,  or  any  such  disagreeable  afflic- 
tion, but  assured  him  most  sincerely  that  I  would  call  on  him  at 
the  first  symptom.  Bless  my  soul  !  he  did  not  want  to  sell  the 


384  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

bottle  for  his  own  sake — he  only  wanted  to  accommodate  me, 
and  if  he  could  not  do  it  for  3s.  6d.,  he'd  do  it  for  half  a  crown. 
In  vain.  I  was  really  not  in  any  pain.  For  two  shillings  ? — 
No.  For  eighteen-pence  ?  the  face  with  which  he  pronounced 
the  latter  sum  was  really  the  personification  of  "  I'm  very  sorry 
to  utter  such  a  sum — "  but  nothing  would  do  ;  and  I  left  him, 
thanking  him  most  heartily  for  his  interesting  and  instructive 
conversation. 

When  we  met  for  the  first  time  in  our  life,  this  man  had  recog- 
rftzed  me  as  an  old  acquaintance — when  we  met  afterward,  he 
did  not  look  at  me ;  but  such  is  life. 

On  the  3d  of  April,  there  was  an  exhibition  in  the  botanical 
garden  of  female  work,  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor,  young  ladies 
selling  the  goods  themselves ;  perfect  crowds  of  people  flocked 
out  there,  and  I,  of  course,  with  them. 

The  exhibition  took  place  in  a  very  large  tent  upon  one  of  the 
green-swards  of  the  botanical  garden,  but  there  was  such  a  throng 
of  ladies  and  gentlemen  round  the  tables  that  I  could  not  get  near 
them,  and  had  to  satisfy  myself  with  all  I  could  see  outside.  I 
really  believe  that  all  the  fair  population  of  Sydney  had  collect- 
ed among  the  green  and  flowery  bushes  of  foreign  lands,  and  every 
walk  of  the  garden  was  crowded  with  them. 

But  besides  them,  there  was  no  want  of  interesting  groups — 
the  eye  fell  upon  a  picture  every  where.  Here  a  young  officer, 
with  a  very  close-fitting  uniform  and  very  thin  form,  a  young 
merry  girl  hanging  on  his  arm,  tried  to  break  through  the  mass 
of  bodies  that  surrounded  the  tables,  but  in  vain ;  there  a  happy 
father,  in  the  sweat  of  his  brow,  pulled  four  or  five  of  his  bless- 
ed little  ones,  who  were  sticking  to  his  skirts  and  elbows,  and 
his  heavy  spouse — who  seemed  to  carry  a  week's  provision  and 
some  clean  linen — through  the  deep  gravel ;  right  opposite,  a 
whole  family  camped,  and  did  not  look  quite  pleased  at  a  little 
patseboard  match-box  and  a  cigar e-etui  of  the  same  stuff,  the 
beautiful  objects  which  they  had  just  won  for  three  half-crowns 
in  one  of  the  little  lotteries,  got  up  expressly  for  the  purpose. 
There  a  couple  of  wild,  rosy  young  girls  chased  each  other  over 
the  grassy  slope,  only  occupied  with  themselves ;  and  yonder, 
through  that  little  low  walk,  a  godly  young  man,  with  down- 
cast eye  and  bended  look  and  back,  in  a  white  waistcoat  and 
cravat,  and  decently  buttoned  up  in  a  broad-tailed  black  frock- 


AUSTRALIA.  385 

coat,  glided  softly  along,  rather  annoyed  at  meeting  those  pretty 
girls  wherever  he  turned  his  steps. 

There  had  been  some  dark  clouds  rising  during  the  last  half- 
hour,  and  I  was  malicious  enough  to  wait  for  the  sport.  What 
a  rush  there  was  then  for  the  tent — what  pressing  and  squeez- 
ing, and  crying  of  little  babies  !  By-the-by,  since  I  mention 
them,  it  is  wonderful  how  many  little  babies  a  man,  even  in  a 
walk  through  the  street,  and  principally  on  such  occasions,  gets 
to  see  in  Australia ;  out  of  five  ladies  you  meet  you  may  be  sure 
three  carry  babies  themselves,  and  one  has  a  maid  behind  her, 
with  one  or  two  of  them  in  her  arms. 

The  next  day  I  visited  many  of  my  countrymen  here,  by  whom 
I  was  received  in  a  most  kind  and  friendly  manner,  and  next 
Sunday  we  visited  Botany  Bay  together. 

Botany  Bay  acquired  a  bad  name  as  innocently  as  many  a 
man  in  this  wily  world ;  there  never  was  a  penal  settlement  on 
its  shores,  and  yet  there  is  hardly  a  soul  living  in  Europe,  who 
ever  heard  the  name,  that  does  not  confound  it  with  all  the 
dreadful  accompaniments  of  prisons,  chains,  and  felons. 

Botany  Bay  was  the  first  place  where  Captain  Cook  landed  in 
Australia,  and  a  little  metal  plate,  fastened  into  the  rock,  tells  the 
exact  spot  and  date,  where  and  when  the  celebrated  navigator 
came  on  shore  with  his  first  boat.  A  pillar  from  the  soft  sand- 
stone, found  on  the  spot  is  also  erected  to  La  Perouse,  who  was 
last  heard  of  here.  Nobody  knew  what  became  of  him  and  his 
ship  afterward,  till  some  signs  of  his  destruction  were  found,  I  be- 
lieve, on  New  Caledonia. 

There  is  a  beautiful  garden  laid  out  in  Botany  Bay,  which 
would  be  a  very  pleasant  drive  for  the  Sydney  people,  if  the  road 
out  there  was  not  so  dreadfully  desolate — a  sand  desert  nearly  all 
the  way,  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach,  with  little  low  scrubby 
bushes.  But  in  spite  of  this  the  garden  is  much  frequented,  par- 
ticularly as  there  is  a  very  large  collection  of  all  the  Australian 
animals  known,  or  at  least  of  the  most  remarkable  ones.  There 
are  numbers  of  emus,  the  Australian  casuar,  wild  dogs,  rather 
tame,  only  with  a  chain  round  their  necks ;  black  swans,  kan- 
garoos, oppossums,  wallobies,  a  great  variety  of  parrots,  cocka- 
toos and  pigeons,  eagles,  hawks,  and  in  fact  every  thing  else  of 
that  kind  that  could  be  procured.  Even  some  foreign  animals 
were  kept  here  :  a  young  Bengal  tiger,  and  a  small  black  bear 

R 


386  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

from  the  Himalaya  mountains ;  as  ugly  a  fellow  as  I  ever  saw  of 
his  species,  and  in  fact  he  seemed  to  be  aware  of  it,  for,  as  if 
ashamed  of  himself,  he  held  one  of  his  paws  before  his  face  near- 
ly all  the  time  we  were  with  him. 

The  shores  of  the  bay  are  not  half  so  pretty  as  those  of  Port 
Jackson,  the  banks  are  barren  and  sandy,  and  there  are  only  a 
few  spots  covered  with  green  bushes.  I  had  heard  much  of  the 
beautiful  scenery  of  Australia,  but  this  did  not  satisfy  me ;  per- 
haps the  country  I  had  lately  left — those  beautiful  islands — were 
yet  too  fresh  in  my  memory  ;  but  I  thought  the  land  looked  here 
very  .barren  and  poor,  and  some  small  valleys  excepted,  there  was 
in  fact  very  little  cultivation  of  the  soil  going  on,  though  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Sydney  would  have  guaranteed  a  ready  sale  for  every 
thing  which  could  have  been  raised. 

Monday  the  7th  of  April,  I  visited  the  Sydney  theatre,  but  I 
must  acknowledge  that  I  had  expected  more  ;  several  plays  I  saw 
would  not  have  been  suffered  even  in  a  small  German  town,  and 
a  drunken  constable  was  a  main  person  in  nearly  all  of  them,  and 
a  fight  or  whipping  indispensable.  But  I  am  wrong;  there  was 
one  play  that  night  without  a  constable,  but  it  had  some  other 
nice  situations.  The  scene  occurred  in  some  little  family,  man 
and  wife  had  been  quarreling  together,  and  could  not  be  recon- 
ciled till  a  brother  of  the  lady — an  officer,  of  course — comes  un- 
expectedly on  a  visit,  and  is  thought  by  the  husband  a  rival ; 
while  the  lady  who  has  not  seen  her  brother  for  a  number  of 
years,  does  not  know  him  again.  The  officer  kisses  the  lady, 
and  she  cries  out ;  and  the  husband  challenges  the  officer,  who 
refuses  to  fight  him.  The  husband  then  declares — and  this  seems 
the  point  of  the  play — that  the  officer  is  not  worthy  the  coat  he 
wears,  and  deserves  to  have  it  torn  from  his  back.  The  officer 
then  very  coolly  says,  "  If  you  think  so,"  pulls  off  his  coat  to  the 
fright  and  amazement  of  the  husband .  the  lady,  and  the  servant 
man  and  maid.  But  the  young  officer  does  not  stop  at  trifles — 
his  waistcoat  follows — they  all  seem  perfectly  thunderstruck,  and 
the  audience  listens  in  breathless  expectation. 

"Do  you  wish  any  more?"  the  officer  asks  finally,  with  an 
unmistakable  motion,  and  he  is  only  stopped  from  doing  his 
worst  by  the  screams  of  the  family  and  servants,  and  the  perfect 
roars  of  the  house.  Only  one  young  man  in  the  pit  showed  an 
inclination  to  come  to  extremities,  for  he  shouted  in  a  voice  that 


AUSTRALIA.  387 

was  heard  above  all  the  noise,  "  Down  with  them  !"  but  the  ma- 
jority was  against  him. 

The  audience  was  really  more  interesting  than  the  play, 
though  I  afterward  saw  some  very  good  pieces,  very  well  played. 
I  really  never  found  in  any  part  of  the  world  a  more  motley 
group  in  a  theatre  than  was  collected  here.  The  first  gallery 
contained  the  haute  volee — the  name  already  showed  its  destina- 
tion— dress  circle,  and  it  is  in  fact  the  only  decent  place  to  go 
to  in  the  house.  The  second  gallery  is  also  visited  by  the  good 
honest  citizens  and  tradesmen  of  the  town ;  but  a  stranger  must 
not  be  astonished,  if  he  has  a  seat  on  the  first  bench  there,  at  a 
young  lady,  a  perfect  stranger,  coming  up  behind  him,  putting 
her  hands  upon  his  shoulders,  and  leaning  over  him  quite  uncon- 
cernedly to  see  the  play.  The  third  gallery,  the  cheapest  place, 
which  we  call  "  paradise,"  is  the  same  in  all  countries — the  more 
dreadful  the  incidents  the  bill  announces,  the  more  is  this  part 
crowded  ;  but  the  pit,  with  its  wooden  benches  and  doleful  land- 
scape paintings  all  round,  is  far  more  interesting.  As  if  shaken 
out  of  a  Noah's  ark,  they  sit  and  stand  there  crowded  together, 
sailors  and  servant  girls,  grisettes  and  shopkeepers,  tradesmen 
and  water-men  ;  in  short,  "  he's  and  she's,"  in  the  wildest  mixt- 
ure imaginable.  There  they  sit,  W7ith  straw  hats  or  bonnets, 
with  caps  and  without  them,  in  shirt  sleeves  and  red  shawls,  in 
lace  capes  and  frock  coats.  During  the  play  they  amuse  them- 
selves with  applauding,  whistling,  stamping,  and  clapping  hands, 
all  signs  of  the  greatest  satisfaction — in  fact,  make  every  noise 
they  possibly  can  ;  and  between  the  acts  the  real  sport  com- 
mences, with  talking,  laughing,  fighting,  and  singing.  Conver- 
sation is  going  on  at  that  time  between  the  pit  and  the  second 
and  third  gallery,  the  galleries  having  evidently  the  advantage 
in  all  ensuing  hostilities,  for  it  is  easy  enough  to  throw  down  all 
kinds  of  orange  and  apple-peel,  and  other  vegetables  ;  but  such 
things,  if  thrown  up  hardly  ever  reach  higher  than  the  dress 
circle,  and  often  hit  perfectly  innocent  persons  there.  Waiters, 
with  all  sorts  of  fruits  and  cakes,  walk  at  the  same  time  through 
this  Babel  of  voices,  praising  their  wares  in  screaming  voices, 
and  others  follow  with  bottles  of  soda-water,  which  they  explode 
sometimes  in  the  very  centre  of  a  crowd. 

One  evening,  when  the  pit  was  not  so  crowded,  two  men  had 
got  up  a  quarrel  between  themselves,  and  they  would  most  cer- 


388  JOURNEY   ROUND   THE  WORLD- 

tainly  have  come  to  blows  but  for  one  of  these  waiters,  who, 
hearing  the  voices  and  wishing  to  see  the  sport,  rushed  right 
over  the  benches  to  the  place  with  his  fruit-basket  before  him ; 
but,  forgetting  that  general  rule  of  taking  care  of  one's  self, 
he  missed  a  bench  just  when  he  had  reached  the  very  place  of 
action,  and  shooting  forward  right  between  the  hostile  parties, 
spread  peace  and  apples  around  him.  Nobody  thought  of  fight- 
ing, and  with  a  perfect  shout  crowds  pressed  forward  and  picked 
up  every  thing  except  the  waiter.  Only  the  drawing  up  of  the 
curtain  can  put  a  stop  to  this  noise ;  "  hats  off"  is  the  general 
cry,  and  order  is  once  more  restored. 

But  if  a  stranger  should  ever  enter  the  Sydney  theatre  and 
visit  the  pit,  I  do  not  think  it  more  than  right  to  give  him  a  fair 
wrarning  to  keep  his  place  and  not  walk  about  upon  the  benches 
— at  least,  not  during  the  play.  The  following  accident  may 
prove  that  I  do  not  talk  merely  from  hearsay. 

A  young  lady  had  just  finished  a  solo,  when  a  stock-keeper, 
with  his  whip  in  his  hand,  entered  the  pit.  and  only  hearing  the 
bravos  and  noise  of  the  audience,  and  wanting  to  see  the  sport  as 
well,  took  the  heavy  handle  of  his  whip  and  striking  the  benches 
writh  it  in  a  perfectly  frantic  manner,  showed  his  determination 
of  having  her  out  again.  A  young  fellow,  who  came  in  at  the 
same  time,  and  saw  the  curtain  slowly  rise  again,  walked  over 
the  benches  with  his  eyes  fixed  upon  the  stage,  and  on  approach- 
ing this  enthusiast,  managed  to  get  his  toes  exactly  upon  the  spot 
where  the  whip  came  down  upon  the  bench.  It  is  needless  to 
describe  the  consequence,  but  if  the  lady's  voice  on  the  stage 
had  been  high,  he  most  certainly  beat  her,  as  the  audience  at- 
tested by  perfect  shouts. 

Sydney  itself  has  a  decidedly  English  character ;  numer- 
ous omnibuses  pass  all  day  from  one  part  of  the  town,  along 
George-street,  to  another ;  and  besides  these  you  find  a  most  ele- 
gant kind  of  cab  in  nearly  every  street.  Bread  and  vegetable- 
carts  meet  your  eye  wherever  you  look,  light  milk-carts  rattle 
through  the  streets  early  in  the  morning,  and  their  bells  summon 
the  housemaids  to  the  door.  "  Hot  pies,  penny  a-piece,"  are 
loudly  offered,  nearly  at  every  street  corner,  fishmongers  drag  their 
hand-trucks  through  the  crowd,  and  fruit-stalls,  with  oranges 
and  apples,  are  every  where  to  be  seen  at  this  season  of  the  year. 

I  was  struck  by  the  immense  number  of  dram-shops  in  the 


AUSTRALIA.  389 

streets  ;  in  Pitt-street  and  many  other  places  they  stand  house 
on  house,  and  nearly  every  corner  is  sure  to  be  a  grog-shop,  with 
the  government  license  upon  it  to  sell  spirituous  and  fermented 
liquors  ;  and  drunken  men  and  women  you  meet  nearly  every 
where.  I  have  really  never  been  in  any  place  yet  where  I  saw 
so  many  drunkards  as  in  Sydney,  and,  more  disgusting  still, 
drunken  women. 

There  are  not  many  public  institutions  yet  in  Sydney,  for  the 
country  is  too  new,  but  the  "  Mechanics'  School  of  Art"  is  one, 
and  a  very  good  commencement.  The  reading-room  contains  a 
great  many  English  and  nearly  all  the  Australian  papers,  to  which 
a  library  is  added,  members  of  the  institute  being  allowed  to  take 
books  home. 

Among  the  English  papers  I  noticed  the  "  Times,"  "  Illustrated 
London  News."  "Scotsman,"  ''Art-Union,"  "Athenaeum," 
"  Punch,"  and  most  of  the  quarterly  reviews  and  magazines  ;  also 
the  "  Calcutta  Englishman,"  and  the  best  Australian  papers  ; 
but  no  foreign  paper  is  taken  in. 

Though  I  had  been  several  weeks  in  Sydney,  I  knew  nothing 
as  yet  of  the  country,  Botany  Bay  excepted  ;  and  hearing  the 
neighborhood  of  Hunter's  River,  some  distance  farther  to  the 
north,  praised  very  much,  I  determined  on  going  there,  as  it  was 
stated  to  be  a  very  good  spot  for  agriculture  and  emigration. 
There  seemed  to  be  only  a  very  indifferent  land  route  to  this 
place,  and  passengers  always  preferred  going  by  water,  as  a 
steamer  leaves  every  evening,  Sunday  excepted,  for  Hunter's 
River.  There  are  three  steamers  for  that  river,  two  iron  ones, 
the  "  Rose"  and  the  "  Thistle,"  and  one  old  wooden  boat.  As  the 
iron  steamers  are  in  every  respect  preferable,  passengers  generally 
wait  for  these  ;  and  with  them  the  voyage  out  to  sea  again  and 
up  the  coast  to  the  northward  is  usually  made  in  about  twelve 
hours,  if  there  are  no  heavy  head-winds. 

I  started  in  the  "  Rose" — a  beautiful  boat — and  after  a  passage 
of  eleven  hours  reached  the  port  of  Newcastle,  at  the  mouth  of 
Hunter's  River.  The  scenery  was  monotonous  enough,  and  New- 
castle itself  looked  like  a  little  town  whose  streets  had  been  filled 
up  by  a  sand-storm,  which  left  the  houses  just  emerging  from 
it.  It  must  be  a  dreadful  place  to  live  in,  and  I  am  sure  only 
the  rich  coal-mines  in  the  neighborhood  caused  people  to  build 
even  a  hut  here. 


390  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

From  there  we  went  up  Hunter's  River  in  perfectly  smooth 
water  ;  but  even  here  the  banks  of  the  river  did  not  display  a 
single  spot  which  the  eye  could  rest  upon  with  pleasure — low 
bushes  and  thickets,  sometimes  enlivened  by  a  noisy  swarm  of 
white  cockatoos  or  some  gulls,  skimming  over  the  surface,  or 
dashing  from  above  upon  their  prey.  But  farther  up  there  was 
a  change  for  the  better.  Here  and  there  on  the  banks  little  cul- 
tivated spots  became  visible ;  on  the  right  bank  there  was  even 
a  really  romantic  cottage,  half  hidden  in  groves  of  orange-trees 
and  Norfolk  pines,  through  which  the  broad  leaves  of  the  tropical 
bananas  were  seen.  The  banana  grows  in  some  sheltered  nooks, 
but  does  not  often  bear  fruit.  The  farther  up  we  went,  the 
more  the  land  was  cultivated;  and  the  open  fields  with  dry 
trees  left  standing  in  them  ;  the  dark  woods  behind,  and  the  low 
hills,  made  the  country  look  very  much  like  the  banks  of  the 
Mississippi — at  least,  in  some  places  ;  and  with  the  one  excep- 
tion in  particular,  that  Hunter's  River  never  can  be  compared 
with  the  "  Father  of  the  waters." 

Even  the  fields,  with  their  fences,  bore  some  resemblance  to 
the  American,  as  they  grow  here  a  great  deal  of  Indian  corn,  not 
for  bread,  as  in  the  western  parts  of  the  States,  but  merely  for 
the  use  of  cattle  and  pigs,  the  farmers  here  preferring  wheat-bread 
to  corn,  which  they  may  easily  do,  as  they  do  not  eat  so  much 
fat  meat,  bacon,  and  pork,  as  the  backwoodsmen,  for  which 
corn-bread  is  always  preferable. 

It  being  autumn  in  Australia,  Indian  corn  was  standing  in  the 
fields,  but  the  land  destined  for  grain  was  under  the  plow.  I 
saw  several  plows,  with  four  and  six  oxen  before  them,  a  cer- 
tain sign  of  heavy  land.  Every  inch  of  ground  along  the  river- 
bank  seemed  under  cultivation,  these  bottoms  forming,  as  I  heard 
afterward,  one  of  the  best  ranges  in  New  South  Wales,  for  agri- 
culture. 

The  boat  stopped  at  a  little  village  called  Raymond's  Terrace  ; 
and  here  I  got  out,  as  I  intended  visiting  the  farm  of  an  English 
gentleman,  Mr.  James  King,  to  whom  I  had  some  letters  of  intro- 
duction from  Sydney. 

Mr.  King  lived  about  three  miles  from  the  river-bank  upon  a 
spot  called  Irrawang,  an  Indian  name  :  and  I  crossed  an  Austra- 
lian "bush,"  as  they  call  it  here  always,  where  for  the  first 
time  the  Australian  gum-tree  met  my  eye,  and  I  hurried  on  as 


AUSTRALIA.  391 

quickly  as  I  could  to  get  out  of  sight  of  the  houses,  and  fully  enjoy 
all  the  new  impressions  such  a  moment  ever  imparts  to  man — 
or  at  least  to  myself;  for  I  never  yet  entered  the  wilderness  of 
another  part  of  the  world,  unsullied  by  the  hand  of  human  beings, 
without  feeling  a  hardly  describable  delight.  And  how  much  more 
here,  when  for  years  before  so  many  wonderful  things  about  the 
Australian  bush  had  reached  my  ears,  though  I  felt  rather  aston- 
ished at  having  yet  met  nothing  extraordinary,  after  I  had  trav- 
eled in  the  bush  at  least  five  hundred  yards.  But  to  tell  the 
truth,  I  had  expected  more  of  the  Australian  bush.  I  had  not 
the  least  doubt  that  there  were  larger  forests,  for  the  hills  here 
looked  rather  barren,  and  could  raise  no  large  growth  of  trees ; 
but  what  I  saw  did  not  at  all  come  up  to  my  expectations.  The 
trees  were  slender  and  smooth,  and  looked  well,  but  far  too  uni- 
form to  make  a  good  impression ;  if  the  bark  seemed  to  differ 
lightly,  the  leaves  shov/ed  no  variety,  or,  if  any,  very  little. 
The  tops  look  really  all  alike,  and  also  belong  mostly  to  the 
same  species ;  the  leaves  are  hard  and  dry,  lancet-formed,  with 
a  strange  oily  taste,  and  the  pendant  bark  of  the  white  smooth 
trunks,  which  swings  in  large  strips  sometimes  to  the  ground,  or 
backward  and  forward  in  the  breeze,  tells  the  wanderer  he  is  in 
the  land  where  the  wrong  side  is  always  uppermost. 

I  felt  particularly  interested  in  the  stringy  bark- trees,  from 
various  descriptions,  but  I  could  not  find  a  single  good  one  here, 
the  settlers  always  peeling  these  trees  to  cover  their  huts,  with 
the  bark,  and  for  other  purposes ;  the  trees,  of  course,  dying  off 
as  soon  as  they  are  stripped  in  such  a  way. 

Those  trees  look  most  singular  which  shed  their  bark  volun- 
tarily ;  and,  like  poor  beggars  in  the  old  country,  they  stand  with 
their  ragged  coats  hanging  in  tatters  around  them,  among  their 
more  decent  relations — the  stringy-barks,  and  the  black-huts.  A 
differently-looking  tree,  also  indigenous  to  Australia,  is  the  cas- 
uarina,  with  its  pointed  and  needle-like  leaves,  belonging,  at  the 
same  time,  to  the  oak  species  (it  is  called  the  she-oak  in  Austra- 
lia.) In  some  parts,  but  only  in  parts,  a  cedar  grows,  with  light 
wood  ;  but  the  wood  of  all  these  gum-trees,  and  that  of  the  cas- 
uarinas  as  well,  is  very  heavy,  and  even  small  chips  of  the  gums 
sink  like  lead  in  the  water ;  nearly  all  the  large  trees,  at  the 
same  time,  are — some  more,  some  less — hollow  inside. 

Toward  mid-day  I  reached  Mr.  King's  farm,  and  though  he 


392  JOURNEY  HOUND  THE  WORLD. 

was  not  at  home  just  then,  I  was  received  by  his  lady  in  a  most 
kind  and  friendly  manner.  Mr.  King  came  home  toward,  even- 
ing, and  we  had  a  long  talk  about  colonization  in  Australia ;  and 
few  could  have  given  me  a  better  account  of  it  than  such  an  old 
settler  as  himself,  for  he  had  been  stock-keeping  and  farming 
many  a  long  year  in  the  bush  of  this  country. 

At  present  he  seems  to  have  turned  his  attention  principally  to 
the  culture  of  the  vine  ;  and  what  I  saw  here,  and  afterward  in 
Adelaide  of  this,  convinced  me  that  Australia  would  some  day 
become  an  extraordinary  country  for  wine,  New  South  Wales 
being  no  great  country  for  agriculture,  for,  with  the  exception  of 
a  few  valleys,  the  soil  is  very  indifferent,  and  good  crops  can  not 
be  expected  from  it ;  but  the  grape  does  not  want  a  better  bottom, 
and  the  climate  is  excellent. 

I  tasted.,  at  Mr.  King's  house,  a  white  wine,  four  years  in 
bottle,  which  was  equal  to  our  German  Hochheimer,  or  hock,  as 
the  English  commonly  call  all  the  Rhine  wines,  and  a  red  wine 
I  thought  also  equal  to  our  Asmannshauser.  Mr.  King  intends 
to  send  samples  of  this  wine  to  Europe ;  but  though  they  may 
retain  their  body,  I  fear  very  much  that  they  will  lose  a  great 
deal  of  their  flavor,  as  I  have  tried  the  experiment  myself. 

Next  day,  we  took  a  ride  together  over  his  property.  The  soil 
is  in  parts  tolerably  good — very  good,  in  fact,  for  pasture,  though 
less  so  for  agriculture — at  least,  the  bulk  of  it,  though  one  valley, 
in  particular,  produces  beautiful  crops  ;  but  the  river-bottoms,  of 
Hunter's  and  William's  Rivers,  which  are  exposed  to  the  yearly 
floods,  are  much  superior,  though  they  are  very  small. 

Landowners  in  Australia  follow  a  very  good  and  sure  course 
in  letting  their  lands  to  poor  emigrants.  The  conditions  are 
equally  advantageous  for  owner  and  tenant,  for  the  latter  have 
the  land  for  the  two  first  years  perfectly  rent-free,  the  improve- 
ments they  make  upon  the  soil  being  a  good  equivalent  for  the 
use  of  the  ground,  and  afterward  pay  a  moderate  rent.  These 
men,  who  would  have  made  hardly  more  than  their  living  by 
hiring  themselves  out  as  common  laborers,  are  enabled  to  lay  by 
some  money,  and  have  the  chance  of  becoming,  at  some  time, 
landholders  themselves. 

There  is  only  one  disadvantage  here  in  comparison  with  the 
United  States  of  America.  The  government  has  fixed  the  price 
of  land  at  one  guinea  per  acre — and  it  is  not  even  sold  at  that  off- 


AUSTRALIA.  393 

hand ;  but  as  soon  as  there  is  an  application  for  a  certain  section, 
the  land  is  brought  into  market,  and  offered  by  auction  for  a 
guinea.  If  the  land  is  of  any  value,  the  man  who  has  hunted 
it  up  and  thought  of  buying  it,  may  be  sure  of  not  getting  it  for 
that  price — it  will  rise  to  two,  three,  four,  and  more  guineas  an 
acre — while,  if  he  gets  it  for  that  amount,  he  may  be  certain  it  is 
hardly  worth  having.  In  the  United  States,  on  the  contrary,  a 
poor  man  has  more  chances  against  capitalists,  as  he  may  squat 
upon  any  part  of  Uncle  Sam's  ground,  provided  the  place  is  not 
already  taken  up  by  somebody  else,  while  he  can  pay  the  Congress 
price,  one  and  a  quarter  dollars,  for  the  acre  of  ground  right  down 
to  government,  without  going  to  auction  first,  and  running  the 
chance  of  being  driven  to  a  treble  or  quadruple  price. 

But  on  the  other  hand,  Australia  had,  at  this  time  at  least — 
for  I  do  not  know  what  difference  the  gold  discovery  may  make 
in  after  times  in  this  respect — an  advantage  over  the  States  for 
laborers.  Hands  are  not  wanted  in  the  States  so  much  as  they 
are  here,  and,  in  consequence,  not  paid  so  well.  In  America, 
whither  perfect  crowds  of  emigrants  are  always  flocking,  farmers 
could  get  as  many  laborers  as  they  pleased,  and  had  the  pick  of 
them  at  a  very  moderate  price  :  while  the  settlers,  sheep- farmers, 
and  stock-keepers  of  Australia  did  not  really  know  what  to  do 
with  their  ground  and  fast  increasing  flocks,  for  want  of  hands  to 
take  care  of  things.  Families  are  principally  wanted,  and  the 
farmers  had  already  gone  to  the  expense  of  importing  them  from 
Germany  and  England.  But  I  did  not  dare  to  judge  yet  about 
emigration  to  Australia  till  I  had  seen  more  of  the  country ;  and 
there  was  a  good  prospect  of  this  ibon  taking  place,  for  being 
rather  tired  of  salt-water,  I  intended  to  go  to  Adelaide  by  land — 
a  long,  and,  as  I  was  told,  a  tedious  journey  of  two  or  three 
months  on  horseback. 

I  found  two  German  families  on  Mr.  King's  farm.  Their  pass- 
age to  Australia  had  been  paid  for  them ;  and  as  they  had  been 
now  two  years  on  this  farm,  they  had  nearly  worked  it  off.  They 
did  not  like  the  quiet  life  in  the  bush  very  much,  hearing  and 
seeing  nothing  of  the  world  around  them  ;  but  they  thought  Aus- 
tralia a  good  country,  especially  for  poor  people  who  had  not  been 
able  to  make  more  than  their  living  in  the  old  country. 

The  farmers  of  New  South  Wales  are  better  off  for  laborers 
tha% those  of  Moreton  Bay — a  colony  farther  north.  As  there 

R* 


394  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

are  no  ships  direct  to  the  latter  place,  emigrants  have  to  land 
first  in  New  South  Wales,  or  one  of  the  southern  colonies ;  and 
if  they  show  only  the  least  inclination  of  taking  a  trip  to  the  north, 
they  are  directly  told  such  dreadful  stories  about  blacks  and  their 
cruelties,  that  they  nearly  always  give  up  such  ideas  as  perfect 
madness,  and  stay  where  they  are.  The  Moreton-Bay  farmers 
were,  therefore,  all  in  favor  of  transportation,  as  they  had  no  fair 
chance  against  the  other  colonies. 

Australian  farmers  have  tried  to  import  workmen  from  China  ; 
and  I  heard  the  delegates  from  Yan  Dieman's  Land  and  Mel- 
bourne to  the  anti-transportation  meeting,  who  were  stopping  in 
the  Royal  Hotel,  argue  about  these  Chinese,  but  they  all  seemed 
dissatisfied  with  them,  and  said  any  one  that  made  the  experi- 
ment would  not  take  any  more.  Some  do  very  well,  but  the 
majority  seem  not  to  have  answered. 

The  settlers  in  Irrawang,  and  the  neighborhood,  were  just  on 
the  point  of  establishing  a  national  school,  Raymond's  Terrace 
being  too  far  to  send  children,  and  they  were  collecting  subscrip- 
tions for  the  purpose.  The  Australian  government  is  very  liberal 
in  all  matters  concerning  education,  always  giving  two-thirds  of  the 
costs  toward  the  erection  of  a  school-house — provided  not  less  than 
thirty  scholars  are  really  proved  to  be  in  want  of  such  a  new 
school,  so  that  only  one-third  has  to  be  paid  by  the  parents,  and 
government  at  the  same  time  gives  a  salary  of  X40  for  a  teacher. 

The  settlers  of  Irrawang  are  proud  of  possessing,  before  many 
others,  a  national-school — that  is,  a  school  not  ruled  by  the  clergy, 
but  leaving  the  preachers  to  teach  religion  only  on  Sundays,  or 
when  the  children  are  at  home.  Brave  Cobden's  enthusiasm  for 
the  reformation  of  schools — and  the  Lord  knows  they  need  it  all 
through  the  old  country  as  well  as  through  the  new — has  found 
a  fertile  soil  here,  and  Heaven  grant  England  may  untie  the 
hands  of  the  teachers,  though  I  do  not  believe  it  possible  yet. 
The  Church  has,  as  Gothe  says,  a  good  stomach ;  and  what  the 
clergy  once  gets  hold  of  can  not  so  easily  be  got  out  of  their  hands, 
much  less  a  power  over  the  education  of  the  young,  for  they  know 
best  that  through  it  they  would  lose,  in  the  course  of  time,  their 
power  over  the  old  as  well. 

I  staid  several  days  under  Mr.  King's  hospitable  roof;  and  I 
shall  always  remember  this  gentleman  and  his  amiable  lady  with 
respect  and  admiration.  I  intended  to  go  still  farther  uf  the 


AUSTRALIA.  395 

river,  and  was  provided,  by  Mr.  King's  kindness,  with  another 
letter  of  introduction  to  some  gentleman  near  Maitland",  but  I 
missed  the  steamer  that  morning,  the  "  Thistle,"  having  had  a 
fair  wind,  and  arriving  three  quarters  of  an  hour  before  her  usual 
time.  To  go  to  Maitland  now,  I  should  have  been  obliged  to 
wait  a  day  longer,  and  then  take  passage  in  the  old  slow  wooden 
steamer — therefore,  not  wanting  to  risk  that  (and  as  it  turned 
out  I  was  very  glad  I  did  not,  for  we  had  afterward  a  very  strong 
southerly  wind)  I  determined  on  going  down  the  river  with  the 
"  Rose"  which  arrived  half  an  hour  later  from  Maitland,  instead 
of  up  ;  and  that  same  evening,  about  ten  o'clock,  after  a  rather 
rough  passage,  I  was  again  in  Sydney,  this  being  the  third  time 
I  passed  the  heads,  or  the  entrance  of  Jackson  harbor,  in  the 
dark. 

What  little  I  had  seen,  by  this  time,  of  Australia,  made  me 
wish  to  see  more,  and  principally  those  German  settlements  in 
Adelaide,  which  I  had  heard  so  much  of;  the  soil  of  Adelaide 
being  at  the  same  time,  as  nearly  every  body  told  me,  far  superior 
to  that  of  New  South  Wales.  Sailing-vessels  went  there  in  from 
six  to  twelve  days,  but  I  did  not  want  to  go  by  sea.  On  board 
a  vessel  I  should  be  carried  from  one  colony  to  another,  without 
seeing  the  least  of  the  real  interior — of  the  bush,  as  even  the 
settlers  in  Irrawang,  where  the  bush,  according  to  the  Sydney 
people,  commences,  called  the  regions  still  held  by  the  blacks. 

But  there  were  some  difficulties  to  overcome.  As  I  heard  at 
Sydney,  there  had  been  such  a  drought  on  the  Murray  this  last 
year,  as  even  the  oldest  inhabitant  with  the  exceedingly  bad 
memory,  never  recollected  to  have  witnessed.  A  horseman,  who 
had  lately  arrived  from  the  Hume  River,  assured  me  they  had 
had  no  rain  there  for  sixteen  months,  and  going  on  horseback 
now  down  the  Hume  and  Murray  would  be  entirely  out  of  the 
question.  The  state  of  cattle  and  sheep  was  dreadful  by  his 
account ;  and  he  also  told  me  I  could  not  have  chosen  a  worse 
moment  to  see  the  country  to  advantage. 

And  the  blacks  ?  dear  reader,  there  were  the  same  stories 
afloat  again  as  in  South  America.  There  was  of  course  no 
chance  of  my  reaching  Adelaide — if  I  traveled  by  myself — with- 
out paying  for  my  daring,  if  not  with  my  life,  with  my  kidney- 
fat — the  blacks  being  very  partial  to  such  fat,  through  some  odd 
superstitious  notions  They  were  at  the  same  time — as  every 


396  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

body  told  me — the  most  treacherous  devils  imaginable,  no  truth, 
no  ambition  in  them,  and  thorough  thieves  and  murderers.  But 
they  all  told  me  I  ought  to  go,  by  all  means,  at  least  to  Albury, 
where  I  would  learn  every  thing  I  wanted  to  hear  on  the  very 
spot,  in  the  centre  of  action,  and  when  able  to  judge  for  myself, 
they  were  sure  I  would  quietly  turn  back.  They  might  have 
been  perfectly  right  in  the  first  point,  but  they  were  mistaken  in 
the  last. 

To  go  on  horseback  was,  however,  out  of  the  question ;  there 
is  nothing  more  tiresome  in  the  world  than  to  have  a  poorly  fed 
horse  under  you,  and  I  would  rather  walk  any  time.  But  for 
such  a  walk  I  also  felt  no  inclination,  and  a  thought  had  struck 
me  some  time  before,  of  making  the  land  route  by  water.  It  was 
certainly  uniting  both  ways,  and  absurd  and  contradictory  as  it 
sounds,  there  was  a  possibility  of  effecting  it. 

The  Murray  River,  called  the  Hume  farther  up  toward  the 
hills,  and  before  it  receives  the  Murrumbridgee,  was  most  cer- 
tainly navigable  by  a  canoe,  and  what  should  hinder  me  from 
going  down  the  river  to  Adelaide,  or  at  least  about  sixty  miles 
of  it,  to  the  spot  where  the  Murray  makes  in  the  northwest 
bend,  that  powerful  sweep  toward  the  south. 

What  should  hinder  me  ?  every  thing,  the  others  said ;  first 
of  all,  it  was  a  thing  not  yet  tried  by  any  body ;  secondly,  the 
natives  were  sure  to  spear  me  from  the  river  banks  ;  and  thirdly, 
the  river  made  such  enormous  turns,  that  it  would  take  me  a 
year  to  go  that  distance. 

Possibly  so,  but  the  resolution  once  taken,  I  was  at  least  de- 
termined to  try  it,  and  it  did  not  frighten  me,  now,  that  every 
body,  acquainted  with  the  country  on  the  Murray,  assured  me 
that  I  would  find  no  craft  there  I  could  buy,  and  only  heavy, 
unwieldy  gum  trees  on  the  river  banks  to  work  one  out  for  my- 
self, if  I  ever  should  be  crazy  enough  to  undertake  such  a  thing. 

There  was  at  this  same  time,  a  meeting  held  on  account  of 
Dr.  Leichhardt,  the  daring  German  traveler,  who  had  made  one 
very  successful  expedition  toward  the  north,  and  who,  now  out 
on  a  second  one,  was  thought  to  have  perished  or  to  have  been 
killed ;  or  if  not,  suffering  somewhere  in  the  interior,  without 
being  able  to  return.  The  people  of  Sydney  maintained  the  last 
supposition,  and  wanted  the  government  to  send  out  an  expedi- 
tion in  search  of  the  lost  man,  to  help  him,  if  possible,  or  ascer- 


AUSTRALIA.  397 

tain  at  least,  the  place  where  he  met  his  fate.  Government, 
after  several  meetings  to  this  purpose,  very  liberally  granted  two 
thousand  pounds,  and  the  expedition  was  to  start  as  soon  as  the 
necessary  number  of  volunteers  had  been  enlisted.  I  would 
willingly  have  gone  with  them,  but  for  the  long  time  the  expedi- 
tion would  have  to  be  absent.  Even  if  every  thing  went  well, 
they  could  not  possibly  return  under  eighteen  months,  and  several 
months  would  yet  elapse  before  they  were  even  ready  to  start. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  ROYAL  MAIL  FROM  SYDNEY  TO  ALBURY 

FULLY  bent  on  trying  a  land  journey  by  myself,  the  only  ques- 
tion was,  the  best  way.  I  could  not  go  on  horseback  ;  every 
body  who  knew  the  state  of  the  interior,  at  the  present  moment, 
told  me  my  horse  would  starve  on  the  road,  or  at  least  only  be 
able  to  make  half  journeys,  and  even  between  Sydney  and  Albury 
I  should  have  to  pay  for  horse  feed  in  the  taverns,  twice  the 
value  of  the  animal.  At  the  same  time  I  did  not  like  walking ; 
I  had  had  enough  of  that  in  California,  and  years  before  in  the 
United  States,  where  I  took  a  walk  from  the  Niagara  to  Texas, 
and  therefore,  following  the  advice  of  some  gentlemen  in  Sydney, 
I  went  with  the  mail-coach  to  Albury,  a  little  town  on  the  banks 
of  the  Hume,  to  see  if  I  should  be  able  to  get  a  canoe  there,  or, 
if  not,  make  one  myself,  and  try  the  river. 

As  I  was  always  ready  for  such  trips,  the  preparations  did  not 
take  much  time,  my  gun  and  old  bowie-knife  with  a  pair  of  small 
pistols  were  sufficient  for  one  person,  and  made  a  load  of  them- 
selves ;  besides  this,  my  Mexican  serape,  two  blankets,  some 
linen,  an  American  ax  and  a  hatchet,  for  fear  I  could  not  get 
them  in  the  interior,  powder  and  lead,  and  I  was  ready  for  a 
new  start. 

The  conveyance  of  persons  and  goods,  as  well  as  of  the  mail 
itself,  is  in  the  hands  of  private  persons,  who  are  only  under  an 
engagement  to  government  to  deliver  the  mail  at  such  and  such 
hours  in  certain  places.  Passengers  are  left  to  their  discretion, 
and  the  way  they  treat  them  is  a  sin  to  humanity.  The  con- 
tractors of  the  mail  have  undertaken  this  business,  as  every  other 
is  undertaken — to  make  money.  In  this  sense  passengers  are 
taken,  and  the  whole  arrangement  of  the  coaches  and  accommo- 
dation for  the  travelers  managed.  Whoever  then  ships  on  such 
a  mail-cart  may  recommend  his  soul  in  the  mean  time  to  merciful 
Heaven,  for  he  will  have  all  hands  full  to  take  care  of  his  body 


EOYAL  MAIL  FROM  SYDNEY  TO  ALBURY.  399 

during  that  time.  But  the  reader  will  learn  more  of  this  by- 
and-by. 

Thursday,  the  22d  of  April,  at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
the  mail  was  going  to  start.  The  day  before  I  paid  my  passage, 
without  getting  the  least  receipt  for  it ;  and  upon  my  asking  if 
there  were  many  passengers  booked  already  I  received  the  dry 
answer : 

"  Only  a  lady,  you'll  have  to  take  care  of  her." 

"  Take  care  of  her  ?"  I  looked  at  the  man,  but  he  didn't  seem 
to  be  in  a  joking  mood,  and  had  also  so  much  business  on  hand, 
not  with  his  mail  affairs,  but  his  bar,  for  he  occupied  at  the  same 
time  the  post  of  bar-keeper,  that  I  had  to  pocket  the  lady,  and 
paying  him  my  £3  to  Yass,  a  half-way  station,  I  left  the  office, 
or  rather  bar,  and  thought  of  the  man's  mysterious  words. 

I  had  packed  up  my  trunk  in  the  mean  time,  with  the  rest  of 
my  effects,  and  Mr.  Kirchner,  the  Prussian  consul  in  Sydney,  had 
been  kind  enough  to  promise  to  take  care  of  it,  and  send  it  by  the 
the  first  vessel  to  Adelaide ;  a  schooner  leaving  for  that  port  in 
a  few  days. 

The  afternoon  came,  and  with  it  the  mail  coach,  a  most  com- 
fortable, elegant-looking  conveyance,  softly  cushioned,  and  per- 
fectly large  and  easy  enough  for  four  persons.  I  was  the  second 
passenger  at  the  booking  office  ;  but  not  trusting  the  Australian 
regulations  in  such  things,  I  thought  it  best  to  be  in  good  time 
on  the  spot.  And  I  really  was  the  first ;  so  quietly  stepping  in, 
I  leaned  back  in  the  soft  corner,  and  thought  I  could  endure  this 
sort  of  thing  for  a  couple  of  days  and  nights,  and  for  a  stretch  of 
about  four  hundred  miles. 

I  had  hardly  made  myself  comfortable,  when  the  door  was 
again  opened,  and  a  lady  helped  in  by  the  polite  coachman. 
"  Ah,"  I  thought,  "  there  is  the  identical  lady  coming  now,"  and 
I  moved  a  little  closer  into  my  corner.  She  was  a  really  pretty 
little  woman  of  about  twenty  or  twenty-one  years  of  age,  with  a 
little  red-cheeked  baby  in  her  arms.  The  baby's  place  had  not 
been  taken,  and  the  bar-keeper  consequently  never  mentioned  it. 
A  slight  bow,  an  inclination  of  the  head,  and  the  lady  took  the 
back-seat  next  to  me. 

"  We  shall  have  a  pleasant — "  I  was  going  to  say  something, 
when  the  door  opened  again,  and  I  found  myself  cut  short  by 
another  lady,  who  would  have  easily  made  two  ;  a  couple  of 


400  JOURNEY  HOUND  THE  WORLD. 

somebodys,  with  very  red  faces,  pushing  behind  at  the  same  time 
to  get  the  load  in,  and  once  through  the  narrow  door,  in  which 
there  was  some  difficulty,  she  looked  round  upon  us  as  if  going  to 
say;  "Whom  shall  I  crush  first?"  Of  course,  I  gave  up  the 
back-seat  directly  in  despair  and  there  being  no  possibility  to  let 
the  lady  pass,  the  young  lady  under  my  protection — as  I  hoped, 
for  I  knew  I  was  not  powerful  enough  to  take  care  of  the  second 
one — moved  to  the  place  which  I  had  occupied  first,  bringing  us 
opposite  each  other. 

The  stout  lady  had  hardly  settled  down,  when  I  discovered 
something  moving  in  her  lap,  and  soon  afterward  a  lively  scream 
announced  the  fifth  passenger  in  the  coach,  in  the  form  of  another 
baby  with  a  very  red  face  and  a  very  white  cap. 

"  I  wonder  when  he  will  start,"  meaning  the  coachman,  said 
the  stout  lady  with  a  bass  voice ;  and  at  the  same  minute  the 
door  flew  open  again,  and  another  lady — one,  dear  reader  ? — no, 
three  ladies ;  one  of  them  carrying  a  baby,  and  the  other  two 
looking  round,  just  when  they  had  pressed  themselves  into  their 
seats,  as  if  they  expected  to  have  a  couple  of  other  babies  handed 
in  after  them — for  ladies  seemed  in  fact  to  carry  babies  here,  as 
they  carry  umbrellas  or  reticules  in  our  country — the  coachman, 
tried  to  tate  a  look  inside. 

"  But  for  Heaven's  sake  !  how  many  more  do  you  want  to  put 
in  ?"  I  asked. 

"  Six,"  was  the  laconic  reply  ;  the  door  being  shut  again  with 
a  crash. 

He  couldn't  mean  six  more,  and  we  were  already  nine,  count- 
ing the  babies.  The  new  comers  had  some  remarks  to  make 
about  not  being  comfortable  in  such  a  small  space,  but  the  stout 
one,  with  the  bass  voice,  shook  her  head,  and  thought :  "  We'd 
all  be  shaken  down  in  no  time,  if  he'd  only  start,"  meaning  of 
course  the  coachman  again ;  and  things  commenced  looking 
brighter  than  they  seemed  to  promise  at  first.  Even  the  young 
lady,  under  my  protection — but,  good  heavens,  which  of  these 
five  was  the  right  one  ?" 

"  Please,  Sir,  your  gun  ain't  loaded  ?"  said  the  lady  next  to 
me,  pointing  with  her  finger  rather  anxiously  toward  the  instru- 
ment in  question,  which  I  held  between  my  knees. 

"  No,  madam,  it  is  not." 

"  Are  you  sure  of  it  ?" 


EOYAL  MAIL  FROM  SYDNEY  TO  ALBURY.  401 

"Perfectly  sure  of  it."  "As  sure  as  shooting,"  an  old  back- 
woodsman would  have  answered  in  my  place. 

"  It  can't  explode — eh  ?"  the  lady  asked  again. 

"  Explode  ?  how?  there  is  no  powder  in  it." 

"  Burst  I  mean,"  the  fair  inquirer  explained. 

"  Only  one  more  !"  the  coachman  interrupted  the  conversation, 
tearing  open  the  door,  and  poking  his  head  in ;  and  behind  him 
stood  another  lady,  with  another  baby  or  two  in  her  arms. 

"  Only  one  more  !"  and  the  lady  really  made  a  motion,  as  if 
about  to  enter,  though  I  have  not  the  least  idea,  how  she  could 
have  accomplished  it.  Perhaps,  this  was  my  charge  ;  but  I  felt 
overcome  already,  and  rising  quickly,  I  asked  the  lady,  who  was 
dodging  her  head  rather  anxiously,  probably  to  effect  a  breach, 
to  let  me  out.  I  felt  dreadfully  bad  all  at  once. 

"  For  mercy's  sake  let  him  out,"  cried  the  lady  next  to  me, 
who  had  been  so  nervous  about  the  gun.  She  feared  the  worst, 
I  believe  ;  and  even  the  stout  lady  squeezed  herself  up  in  a  most 
astonishing  small  space,  pressing  the  baby  at  the  same  time 
against  the  top  of  the  coach,  to  offer  the  possibility  of  an  exit ; 
while  I  myself  reached  out  my  hand  to  the  coachman,  who  look- 
ed in  again,  to  see  what  was  the  matter,  and  fortunately  he  ex- 
tricated me,  at  least,  piecemeal.  That  is,  first  my  gun,  which 
made  the  stout  lady  scream,  for  he  held  the  muzzle  of  it  right 
under  her  nose,  then  myself,  and  at  last  my  serape,  on  which  I 
had  been  sitting. 

I  was  saved  ;  and  throwing  my  blanket  upon  the  top,  and  fol- 
lowing it  with  my  gun,  I  soon  sat  as  comfortably  as  a  man  can 
sit  on  such  a  place,  by  the  coachman  on  a  small  seat.  "We  were 
six  on  deck,  and  every  thing  in  order ;  and  were  soon  after 
rattling  along  over  the  smooth  and  well-kept  turnpike  road.  We 
stopped  several  times  ;  passengers  gliding  down  from  the  vehicle 
to  their  homes ;  even  from  the  inside  I  several  times  saw  the 
white  dress  of  some  of  the  occupants — for  it  had  become  per- 
fectly dark — appear,  and  pass  to  the  nearest  house  on  the  road. 
The  stout  lady  herself  got  out,  and  a  very  thin  little  specimen 
of  a  man — her  husband  of  course — stood  in  the  door  of  a  neat 
little  cottage,  with  a  large  stable  lantern  in  his  hand,  and  wel- 
comed her  home. 

The  clouds  commenced  looking  suspicious,  and  I  already 
thought  of  getting  inside  again  at  the  next  stopping  place,  when 


402  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WOULD. 

I  suddenly  heard  that  we  changed  here,  not  only  horses,  but  also 
wagons,  and  would  have  to  ride  from  that  place  in  an  open 
vehicle. 

There  was  a  prospect,  and  nice  fun  too  we  had  afterward. 
We  stopped  here  just  long  enough  to  take  some  supper — four  of 
the  ladies  were  left,  but  not  the  pretty  one  among  them — and 
half  an  hour  afterward  we  found  ourselves  stowed  away  in  an 
open  sort  of  shooting  cart  with  three  swing  seats.  All  went  on 
well,  however,  to  the  next  station,  little  being  spoken  on  the 
way,  for  nobody  felt  comfortable,  and  the  clouds  most  assuredly 
threatened  rain. 

At  the  next  station  we  changed  wagons  again,  and  I  was 
really  astonished  at  seeing  the  impudence  with  which  eleven 
persons  were  crowded  into  an  open  vehicle,  not  unlike  an  under- 
taker's cart,  where  six  would  not  have  found  comfortable  room. 
The  two  seats  inside  ran  along  fore  and  aft,  and  were  so  small 
that  a  person  could  hardly  hang  on  to  them.  We  got  in  there  at 
last,  first  swearing,  and  soon  afterward  laughing  about  our  really 
ridiculous  situation,  and  I  assuredly  never  in  my  life  before  had 
seen  twenty  legs  (one  man  was  sitting  with  the  coachman)  in 
such  a  small  space.  I  got  my  right  leg,  in  trying  to  sit  down,  over 
my  neighbor's  left  knee,  and  the  others  settling  down  at  the  same 
time,  got  my  foot  as  if  in  a  vice,  so  that  there  was  no  possibility 
of  pulling  it  out  again.  I  had  to  sit  in  this  posture  for  several 
hours,  my  leg  getting  benumbed,  and  after  a  short  time,  my 
neighbor's  leg  also,  though  we  felt  no  inconvenience  through  it 
till  we  got  out,  where  we  were  obliged  to  work  our  legs  at  least 
a  quarter  of  an  hour,  "to  shake  the  reefs  out  of  them,"  as  my 
neighbor  said.  He  was  the  oldest  neighbor  I  ever  had. 

On  getting  in  again  we  had  the  same  process  to  repeat,  and 
when  the  coachman  whipped  the  horses,  through  the  sudden  pull 
and  jerk  which  the  wagon,  or,  rather,  the  cart  gave,  we  all  set- 
tled down  a  second  time  into  a  solid  mass. 

To  crown  the  whole  it  commenced  raining  about  ten  o'clock, 
and  at  midnight  it  poured  down  as  if  out  of  buckets.  We  were 
in  a  miserable  plight,  and  would  have  had  the  greatest  cause 
imaginable  to  do  any  thing  extravagant  with  our  tongues  or 
arms — for  our  legs  were  out  of  the  question  ;  but  no,  indeed,  ex- 
tremes met,  and  I  really  do  not  recollect  the  time  when,  during 
a  night,  even  in  the  most  pleasant  company,  and  under  the  most 


ROYAL  MAIL  FROM  SYDNEY  TO  ALBURY.  403 

favorable  circumstances,  I  laughed  more,  and  amused  myself  bet- 
ter, than  upon  this  flying  cruelty- trap,  splashing  through  mud 
and  rnire,  and  having  a  perfect  flood  of  cold  rain  pouring  over 
us.  Though  none  of  us  knew  each  other  before  we  entered  this 
conveyance,  which  they  called  the  royal  mail  in  Australia, 
the  rain  introduced  us  and  united  us,  as  if  we  had  been  so 
many  sugar-loaves.  Anecdotes  were  related,  songs  sung,  and  I 
really  think  a  merrier  party  than  ours  had  never  crossed  "  Razor- 
back." 

Razorback  ?  Yes  ;  a  poetical  name  for  a  mountain,  or  rather 
a  mountain-ridge,  where  we  came  suddenly  to  a  dead  stop,  the 
driver  jumping  down  from  his  box,  and  telling  us  we  had  bettei 
do  the  same,  if  we  didn't  want  to  stick  there  till  daylight,  or, 
perhaps,  a  little  longer.  That  was  pleasant.  There  was  no 
method  of  getting  out  as  other  passengers  do  when  the  coach 
stops  ;  we  had  really  to  peel  our  legs  off,  and  then  jump  right 
down  into  the  soft  mud  in  the  middle  of  the  road. 

But  we  were  not  in  the  humor  to  grumble  ;  we  got  down  with 
a  laugh,  splashing  on  ahead,  and  not  caring  a  straw,  as  it  seemed, 
for  whatever  happened.  I  carried  that  night  babies  up  and  down 
Razorback,  for  the  poor  women  really  could  hardly  drag  them- 
selves along ;  and  with  wading  and  climbing,  and  slipping  and 
gliding  we  got  up  the  steep  hill  and  down  again,  entering  the 
coach  at  the  foot  of  the  Razorback  wet  and  muddy  all  over,  but 
if  possible  even  in  a  better  humor  than  before.  The  coachman 
said  we  were  the  most  extraordinary  people  he  had  ever  driven. 

There  was  only  one  little  man  in  the  coach,  who  had  not 
spoken  a  word  yet,  though  one  of  the  ladies — "  an  old  meriy 
body,"  as  she  called  herself,  who  kept  a  tavern  somewhere  in 
Sydney — had  ipt  given  up  teasing  him  about  his  shyness  all  the 
way.  But  he  remained  silent  and  sulky,  nodding  wherever  he 
got  a  chance,  and  pulling  at  his  legs  to  free  them  a  little,  but,  of 
course,  without  success.  On  getting  in  again  at  the  foot  of  the 
mountain,  the  old  lady  commenced  at  him  once  more,  remarking, 
she  didn't  believe  he  could  speak,  and  that  he  kept  his  tongue 
more  for  ornament  than  use  in  his  mouth  ;  but  the  little  quiet 
fellow  had  become  another  man,  the  walk  had  awakened  him, 
and  all  at  once  he  began  in  a  loud  shrill  voice  such  a  noisy  and 
comical  song  that  we  all  really  screamed  with  laughter,  which 
reached  its  highest  pitch  when  the  coachman  suddenly  turned 


404  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

round  on  his  box,  and  asked  who  had  got  in  there,  as  he  had  not 
heard  that  voice  before. 

And  from  that  moment  the  little  gentleman  seemed  really  quite 
another  being.  We  also  learned  in  the  next  quarter  of  an  hour, 
what  had  been  the  matter  with  him  during  the  first  part  of  the 
journey.  He  was  the  printer  and  part-editor  of  the  "  Goulburn 
Herald,"  a  Mr.  Johnson,  who  had  been  partly  on  business,  and 
partly  on  a  spree  to  Sydney,  and  had  been  merry  the  whole  pre- 
vious night ;  but  rather  sleepy  and  dull  when  he  entered  the  cart, 
especially  as  the  weather  was  wet  and  chilly,  and  he  had  nothing 
but  a  thin  and  light  summer  coat.  But  now  he  was  "  himself 
again." 

Toward  morning,  when  it  left  off  raining,  and  the  cold  breeze 
sprang  up  before  sun  rise,  the  conversation  began  to  slacken ;  and 
wrapping  ourselves  up  in  what  we  had,  or  buttoning  our  coats 
higher  up,  we  sat  nodding  and  chilly  upon  the  small  seats  with- 
out backs  to  them,  except  a  low  and  thin  iron  railing,  just  high 
enough  to  catch  you,  at  every  jolt  the  cart  gave ;  and  the  whole 
ride  was  an  uninterrupted  continuation  of  jolts,  right  above  the 
hips  in  the  soft  place.  At  daybreak  it  commenced  raining  again, 
a  fine,  icy-cold  rain,  striking  down  with  all  the  force  imaginable ; 
nobody  had  spoken  a  word  for  at  least  half  an  hour,  not  even  Mr. 
Johnson,  who  had  been  the  liveliest  of  us  all  after  midnight,  and 
I  would  have  given  any  thing  to  have  been  able  to  draw  the 
group  which  set  right  before  me,  when  day  enabled  me  to  distin- 
guish persons  and  features. 

Mr.  Johnson  himself  formed  the  centre  of  it,  shivering  in  a 
gray,  thin  little  coat,  with  one  row  of  buttons,  buttoned  up  as 
tight  as  possible,  but  not  tight  enough  by  a  long  way  ;  one  hand 
in  his  breast,  the  other  in  one  of  his  trousers'  pockets,  a  silk  black 
hat — rather  the  worse  for  the  last  rain — upon  his  head,  and  nod- 
ding forward  sometimes  as  if  he  were  going  to  dislocate  his  neck. 
To  his  right  and  left,  he  had  a  lady — the  one  on  his  larboard- 
quarter  with  an  open,  bran  new  green  cotton  umbrella  opened, 
and  the  other  one  on  his  starboard  with  a  small  parasol  also  open 
to  keep  the  rain  off  as  much  as  possible.  Even  the  ladies,  as 
sweet  as  they  may  have  been  at  other  times,  looked  very  much 
like  drowned  chickens  this  morning,  and  held  the  umbrella  and 
parasol  in  such  a  way  as  to  let  the  whole  water  that  ran  off 
drain  into  poor  Mr.  Johnson's  coat-collar,  giving  his  shirt  or  cravat, 


ROYAL 'MAIL  FROM  SYDNEY  TO  ALBURY.  405 

on  his  left  side,  a  beautiful  green,  and  on  the  right  a  sky-blue 
color,  rather  consoling  in  such  weather.  No  wonder  the  poor 
devil  sat  there  shivering.  I  am  sure  the  water  must  have  run 
down  into  his  very  shoes. 

At  one  of  the  stations  we  set  down  part  of  the  passengers — 
three  ladies  and  some  young  men — and  now  had  room  enough. 
The  lady  left  with  us,  had  a  small  baby  on  her  lap,  and  not  even 
a  warm  cloak  to  cover  herself  or  the  child.  She  lived  in  Gunda- 
gay,  a  little  town  on  the  Murrumbidgee,  as  she  told  us,  and  was 
going  home  to  her  family.  They  had  never  thought  in  Sydney 
that  she  would  have  such  dreadful  weather  to  contend  with ;  and 
it  was  fortunate  for  the  child  that  I  had  my  blankets  with  me, 
or  I  do  not  know  what  the  poor  thing  would  have  done  without 
them. 

In  Goulburn,  a  thriving  little  town  in  the  interior,  we  lost  Mr. 
Johnson  also ;  and,  on  taking  farewell,  he  swore  he  would  let  the 
readers  of  the  "  Goulburn  Herald"  have  the  full  benefit  of  our 
voyage ;  but  I  do  not  know  if  he  kept  his  word.  The  coach  drove 
up  to  his  own  door,  where  the  rather  damp  husband  was  received 
by  his  lady,  and  several  children  and  dogs,  in  a  most  friendly 
manner.  We  had  three  hours  for  sleeping  in  Goulburn — the  first 
rest  we  had  since  leaving  Sydney — but  at  two  o'clock  we  had  to 
get  up  again,  and  trust  our  necks  to  the  villainous  wagon  and 
the  worse  roads  in  a  pitch-dark  night. 

Our  drive,  however,  acquired  a  little  interest  through  a  horse- 
man who  appeared  rather  mysteriously  behind  us,  arid  hurried 
off  to  the  woods  after  passing  us.  On  this  part  of  the  road,  not 
long  before,  some  rather  impudent  feats  of  the  bush-rangers  had 
occurred.  The  last  time  the  rascals,  when  they  saw  they  could 
do  nothing  with  the  wagon,  fired  off  their  pistols  at  the  passengers 
in  spite,  but  fortunately  without  hurting  any  body.  But  bush- 
rangers or  not,  I  was  well  prepared,  and  we  had  no  cause  to  fear 
them. 

I  had  longed  a  good  while  to  see  the  real  Australian  backwood 
— for  even  on  Hunter's  River  the  bush,  though  never  yet  cleared 
by  men,  looked  rather  thin  and  scrubby  in  comparison  with  any 
of  the  backwoods  of  America.  Here  now  I  had  been  told  I  should 
find,  particularly  in  the  Murrumbidgee  flats,  the  real  Australian 
forest ;  and  I  must  acknowledge  I  found  myself  grievously  disap- 
pointed. Gums — gums — gums  wherever  the  eye  sought  another 


406  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

growth  of  trees.  Gums — whether  they  called  them  white  or 
red-gums,  or  stringy-barks,  or  iron-barks,  or  black-buts,  or  even, 
by  way  of  flattery,  apple-trees — they  were  gums — everlasting 
gum-trees,  with  the  long,  dry,  sharp-pointed  leaves,  and  only  dif- 
fering in  their  bark. 

As  far  as  Goulburn,  violent  rains  had  fallen  for  some  weeks, 
and  grass  and  vegetation  looked  therefore  fresh  and  flourishing  ; 
but  on  the  other  side  of  Goulburn  the  ground  already  commenced 
getting  dry  and  dusty,  the  grass  becoming  thinner  and  more  wiry 
up  to  Yass,  another  little  place,  where  we  had  to  change  our 
wagons  again,  and  where  there  was  no  grass  at  all,  the  ground 
being  as  hard  as  a  rock — and  as  barren. 

At  Yass,  something  else  was  in  store  for  us.  Here  we  changed 
wagons  again,  and  as  bad  as  the  last  had  been,  we  could  at  least 
sit  in  it  without  danger  of  being  pitched  out ;  but  from  here  we 
got  a  two- wheeled  cart,  upon  which  one  passenger,  besides  the 
coachman,  could  sit  with  his  face  toward  the  horses,  and,  all 
things  considered,  with  tolerable  comfort ;  but  the  other  two — 
and  I  was  one  of  them — had  to  sit  back  to  back,  with  their  faces 
turned  to  where  they  came  from,  and  no  sufficient  foot-board  to 
support  the  feet,  always  in  danger  of  slipping  off  from  the  narrow 
seat,  principally  in  going  up  steep  banks  which  the  horses  did 
commonly  at  full  speed,  and  having  our  hats  knocked  off  by  low 
rough  branches  more  than  fifty  times.  As  I  had  my  gun,  at  the 
same  time  to  hold,  1  had  to  sling  my  other  arm  round  a  thin  iron 
railing,  which  formed  a  kind  of  partition  between  the  passengers, 
there  being  really  not  the  least  ground  for  a  supposition  that  it 
could  have  been  intended  as  an  accommodation  for  them. 

These  seats  are  really  dangerous,  and,  as  I  was  told,  many 
accidents  have  happened  already,  principally  to  women  and  chil- 
dren. But  what  do  the  mail-contractors  care  for  that  ? — and 
having  the  magistrates  with  them,  what  can  the  public  do  against 
them.  They  will  carry  therefore,  and  maltreat  the  passengers 
till  some  serious  accident  happens  to  one  of  the  magistrates  them- 
selves— which  Heaven  grant  soon  ! — or  it  will  never  be  looked  to. 

There  was  one  wagon  in  which  we  had  been  riding,  "licensed 
to  carry  nine  persons,"  as  it  was  painted  with  large  letters  on  the 
cart ;  but  I  would  have  defied  any  sober  magistrate  in  Australia 
to  put  nine  persons  into  such  a  conveyance,  and  have  them  sit 
side  by  side  and  not  upon  each  other.  But  it  is  no  secret  how 


ROYAL  MAIL  FROM  SYDNEY  TO  ALBURY.  407 

tilings  are  managed.  The  mail  contractors,  who  make  an  enor- 
mous profit  by  the  business,  invite  the  magistrate,  whenever  there 
is  another  wagon  to  be  inspected,  to  a  good  breakfast,  and  there 
these  worthy  members  of  Themis  sit  till  they  are  thought  in  a  fit 
state  for  the  occasion — that  is,  to  see  the  wagon  double — when 
he  is  perfectly  right  in  licensing  the  cart  for  the  accommodation 
of  nine  passengers,  and  calling  the  thing  a  "  royal  mail." 

In  Gundegay  we  left  our  last  lady,  the  poor  woman  being  more 
dead  than  alive  after  such  a  dreadful  ride.  The  next  day  we  got 
another  passenger  for  Albury — a  preacher,  who  went  every  month 
to  the  little  town,  which  had  not  a  clergyman  yet  of  its  own,  not 
only  to  preach  but  also  to  marry  and  baptize  all  those  couples 
and  children  who  had  been  waiting  during  the  last  four  weeks. 
He  was  a  very  sober-looking  young  man,  in  a  brown  long  coat 
with  straight  collar,  and  the  never-failing  white  neck-cloth.  When 
he  got  up  on  the  cart  he  saluted  me  kindly,  and  pulling  a  book 
out  of  his  pocket,  began  to  read.  Bless  my  soul,  how  quickly  he 
dropped  the  book  when  the  horses  gave  the  first  jerk,  and  caught 
hold  of  the  railing.  We  had  to  stop  to  pick  the  book  up,  and  he 
put  it  into  his  pocket  before  we  started  again. 

About  eleven  o'clock  we  stopped  to  change  horses,  at  a  little 
hut  where  some  Germans  lived,  in  the  poorest  place  I  had  yet 
seen ;  not  a  blade  of  grass  was  visible  as  far  as  the  eye  could  see, 
and  here  and  there  a  poor  cow,  which  would  have  had  to  be  fat- 
tened to  make  only  a  decent  skeleton,  was  standing  among  the 
dry  and  indigestible  gum-bushes,  half-starved  already,  and,  as  it 
seemed,  only  looking  out  for  a  place  where  it  could  die  quietly. 

The  Germans,  with  whom  I  spoke,  seemed,  however,  very  well 
satisfied ;  the  men  had  some  employment,  one  as  a  stock-keeper, 
the  other  as  a  shepherd,  to  an  English  gentleman,  and  as  they 
came  from  one  of  the  poorest  districts  in  the  old  country,  any  place 
seemed  a  paradise  to  them  where  they  could  get  enough  to  eat, 
and  even  meat  every  day  and  sugar  and  tea ;  all  these  things 
being  luxuries  which  they  had  seen  very  seldom  or  never  in  their 
old  homes. 

There  was  such  a  scarcity  of  water  in  this  neighborhood,  that 
the  people  assured  me  that  not  far  from  where  they  lived,  a  large 
stockholder  had  posted  a  man  with  a  loaded  gun  at  a  water-hole, 
to  keep  cattle-drivers  away  from  it.  Butter  and  milk  were  es- 
teemed natural  curiosities. 


408  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

The  reader  may  judge  what  a  route  we  had  through  such  a 
country,  tired,  at  the  same  time,  nearly  to  death,  by  a  four  day's 
passage  without  more  than  six  hours  rest  altogether,  and  holding 
on  to  a  thin  iron  railing  nearly  the  whole  time  for  life.  I  was 
half  dead  myself  when,  about  mid-day  on  the  following  Saturday, 
and  after  driving  over  a  road  through  a  kind  of  wooded  plain, 
between  the  waters  of  the  Murrumbidgee  and  Hume  river,  we 
reached  Albury,  a  little  village  on  the  latter  river,  and  my  next 
place  of  destination.  The  mail  itself  went  on  to  Melbourne, 
about  two  hundred  miles  distant  from  this  place,  being  in  con- 
nection once  a  week  with  Adelaide,  but  not  through  the  wilder- 
ness of  the  Murray  Scrub,  but  along  the  more  cultivated,  or  at 
least  better  settled  districts  of  the  sea-coast. 

Albury  had  a  court-house,  a  ferry-boat,  five  taverns,  and — a 
great  improvement  in  the  rising  civilization  of  the  interior  of  Aus- 
tralia— a  steam-mill,  set  up  by  an  enterprising  English  gentle- 
man, a  Mr.  Heaver.  There  are  also  three  stores,  a  white  and 
blacksmith,  carpenter,  and  other  tradesmen  in  the  little  place. 

I  had  a  letter  of  recommendation  to  Mr.  Heaver,  and  was  re- 
ceived by  him  and  his  lady  in  a  most  kind  and  hospitable 
manner.  Here,  in  fact,  I  found  myself  introduced  for  the  first 
time  to  the  really  boundless  hospitality  of  the  interior  of  Aus- 
tralia, and  I  shall  never  forget  the  pleasant  week  I  passed  under 
the  roof  of  this  amiable  family. 

My  first  care  in  Albury  was  to  look  around  for  a  boat  or  canoe, 
but  I  could  find  none  ;  there  was  an  old  crazy  canoe  lying  at  the 
ferry,  but  such  a  clumsy  craft,  cut  roughly  out  of  an  immense 
old  gum-tree,  that  six  men  could  not  have  handled  it,  and  seven 
would  have  sunk  it.  The  timber,  also,  was  not  much  to  my 
liking ;  nothing  but  gum-trees,  with  only  a  few  stringy  barks — 
no  pine,  no  cedar.  There  were  a  few  pines,  I  was  told,  farther 
down  the  river,  in  some  places,  but  none  large  enough  to  dig  out 
a  good  canoe,  and  my  only  hope  left  was  in  some  of  the  stringy 
barks. 

Close  to  Albury  a  small  tribe  of  blacks  camped  and  I  had  a 
chance  of  seeing  here  these  sons  and  daughters  of  the  Australian 
wilds  in  their  aboriginal  state.  0,  my  Emao  !  with  your  oranges 
and  bread-fruit,  your  waving  palm  trees  and  beautiful  children, 
the  men  with  their  frank  and  open  features,  the  women  with 
their  clear  and  laughing  eyes — and  from  there  to  here,  trans- 


ROYAL  MAIL  FROM  SYDNEY  TO  ALBURY.  409 

planted  as  by  magic  among  these  dull  and  everlasting  gum-trees, 
and  these  black  and  dirty,  treacherous  and  murderous  savages — 
the  difference  was  too  great.  And  to  have  this  change,  I  had 
even  risked  my  neck  on  an  Australian  royal  mail — but  it  served 
me  perfectly  right.  From  my  very  youth,  I  had  continually 
taken  the  greatest  pains  to  get  myself  into  some  scrape  or  an- 
other, trusting  to  fate  afterward  to  rescue  rne ;  but  I  never  had 
been  in  such  a  one  before  as  this,  and  if  only  half  of  what  the 
people  here  told  me  about  the  blacks  was  true,  I  could  never 
reach  Adelaide  alive,  at  least  not  with  my  kidney  fat,  which 
some  of  the  tribes  most  certainly  would  claim,  and  try  to  take  as 
their  own. 

In  the  few  previous  months  several  fresh  murders  had  been 
committed,  and  even  in  the  immediate  vicinity  one  of  these  black 
rascals  was  walking  about  unmolested,  with  freshly-shed  blood 
smoking  on  his  hands.  His  name  was  Merryman,  and  he  was 
said  to  have  killed,  or  helped  to  kill,  seven  white  persons  already, 
without  counting  blacks.  Two  days  before,  he  had  struck  his 
club  into  the  skull  of  his  own  wife  and  laid  her  dead  at  his  feet, 
without  the  least  cause  except  ill-temper.  And  in  spite  of  this 
the  magistrate  of  the  district  not  merely  did  not  punish  him, 
but  even  hindered  his  tribe  from  taking  vengeance  on  the  mur- 
derer. 

He  was  taken  up,  it  is  true,  but  only  confined  for  one  night  in 
the  watch-house,  a  great  punishment  for  a  fellow,  who,  perhaps, 
had  never  slept  so  luxuriously  before  ;  and  now  the  black  rascal 
walked  about,  smeared  with  white  clay,  as  a  sign  of  mourning 
for  the  woman  he  had  himself  slain  only  a  few  days  before. 
When  I  met  him,  a  hofSe  had  trodden  one  of  his  toes  off,  but  the 
hardy  thief  walked  about  with  the  bleeding  stump  of  his  toe  ex- 
posed, and  not  even  a  rag  tied  round  it,  as  if  nothing  in  the 
world  had  happened.  A  hostile  tribe  had  also  entered  the  town 
of  Gundegay  the  night  before,  we  passed,  and  speared  one  of  the 
friendly  blacks — that  is,  one  of  those  blacks  who  did  not  steal 
and  murder  as  long  as  they  lived  in  the  centre  of  the  whites. 

Such  was  the  description  I  heard  of  the  blacks  on  the  Hume 
and  Murrumbidgee,  and  those  on  Swanhill  and  the  Darling — 
places  I  should  have  to  pass — were  said  to  be  twenty  times 
worse. 

But  the  devil  is  never  so  black  as  he  is  painted ;  and  if  there 

S 


410  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WOULD. 

were  some  truly  thorough-bred  rascals  among  these  black  Cupids, 
with  their  flat  noses  and  nearly  fleshless  legs  and  arms,  it  was  no 
reason  that  the  whole  nation  must  be  equally  treacherous  ;  trust- 
ing, therefore,  to  my  old  good  luck,  I  determined  on  going  ahead. 

The  next  Sunday  I  went  into  the  hills  to  look  at  the  stringy 
barks,  and  find  the  places  where  good  ones  grew ;  not  to  lose 
much  time  in  searching  for  them,  I  took  one  of  the  blacks  with 
me.  I  found  several  good-looking  ones  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
from  the  river,  and  I  soon  pulled  out  some  which  I  intended  to 
try  the  next  day. 

On  Monday  morning  I  took  a  young  man  out  with  me  to 
fell  one  or  two  of  these  stringy-barks,  and  see  how  they  would 
do.  but  we  could  not  find  a  single  good  one.  Though  they 
looked  so  straight  and  nice  outside,  the  inside  of  every  one 
was  rotten,  and  when  we  sawed  them  in  two,  they  split  and 
broke.  We  tried  three  stringy  barks  that  morning,  but  none 
would  do,  and  we  had  to  give  it  up  at  last.  There  was  nothing 
now  left  me,  but  to  take  a  gum-tree,  and  as  plenty  of  them  grew 
all  round  us,  we  soon  picked  out  a  good-looking  one  close  to  the 
river-bank,  and  felled  it.  Though  it  was  rather  hollow  inside, 
like  nearly  every  tree  there,  I  thought  it  good  enough  to  answer 
my  purpose,  so  peeling  the  bark  off  that  same  evening,  we 
commenced  next  morning  the  regular  work  of  digging  out  the 
canoe. 

The  Hume  River  itself  is  a  tolerably  large  water-course,  and 
in  fact  the  only  river  in  the  whole  of  Australia  in  which  running 
water  may  be  found  throughout  the  year ;  all  the  other  rivers,  or 
those  waters  that  could  be  called  rivers,  cease  running  in  the  dry 
season,  and  during  this  very  summer  th*ey  only  formed  a  chain 
of  water-holes,  everywhere  interrupted  by  dry  strips  of  gravel  or 
sand — even  the  Murrumbidgee  was  the  same,  a  river  nearly  fully 
as  wide  as  the  Murray. 

The  Hume  River  is  about  sixty  or  seventy,  and  in  some  places 
even  one  hundred  yards  wide,  and  of  very  uncertain  depth, 
sometimes,  through  shallow  sand  or  gravel-bars,  only  from  ten  to 
twelve  inches  in  the  main  channel,  and  then  again  sufficiently 
deep  for  a  seventy-four.  What  I  heard  and  saw  of  the  river 
here  promised  at  any  rate  enough  water  for  my  voyage,  even 
with  such  a  heavy  canoe  as  mine  was  to  be ;  the  only  thing  I 
feared  were  the  innumerable  snags,  sticking  every  where  out  of 


ROYAL  MAIL  FROM  SYDNEY  TO  ALBURY.  411 

the  water,  or  betraying  their  existence  close  beneath  the  surface 
by  the  rippling  current.  Gum- wood  does  not  swim  at  all,  and 
where  the  crumbling  banks  had  thrown  a  tree  down  into  the 
water,  there  it  lay,  its  tough  limbs  stemming  the  current  as  it 
washed  over  them  for  years  and  years.  The  rising  flood  alone 
might  have  been  able,  once  in  a  while  to  carry  them  down  to  the 
nearest  bend,  as  a  mountain  stream  in  its  rage  moves  the  rocks 
it  has  undermined  on  the  banks ;  but  this  only  made  things 
worse,  and  such  places  afterward  were  the  most  dangerous  for 
my  canoe. 

Working  away  at  the  little  craft  in  the  mean  time  with  a  good 
will,  we  finished  it  that  same  week,  and  I  made  ready  to  start 
on  the  Monday  morning  ;  at  the  same  time  I  was  treated  with 
the  utmost  kindness  by  my  friendly  host,  Mr.  Heaver,  and  several 
other  gentlemen  in  Albury.  In  fact  all  the  settlers  there  felt  a 
much  greater  interest  in  this  expedition  than  I  had  ever  thought 
they  would  ;  for  they  wished  the  Hume  and  Murray  Rivers  bet- 
ter known  than  they  at  present  were,  and  hoped  to  get  in  time  a 
steam  navigation  upon  the  stream  between  Adelaide  and  this 
place,  which  would,  in  fact,  be  the  greatest  blessing  to  these 
western  parts.  But  in  spite  of  this,  and  as  much  as  they  wished 
to  have  the  stream  explored,  they  all  tried  their  best  to  persuade 
me  not  to  risk  it,  as  I  had  too  many  chances  against  me ;  only 
when,  however,  they  saw  me  determined,  they  did  all  they  could 
to  aid  me,  and  I  spent  in  that  little  place  one  of  the  most  pleas- 
ant weeks  I  passed  in  Australia. 

On  the  Sunday  morning  a  young  German  asked  for  me,  and 
told  me  he  had  just  come  from  Melbourne,  where  he  had  run 
from  an  English  vessel,  and  did  not  know  what  to  do  with  him- 
self; but  if  I  would  take  him,  he  should  like  to  go  with  me  in 
the  canoe.  He  had  not  a  single  thing,  but  was  just  as  he  left 
the  ship,  without  a  cent  in  his  pocket,  even  without  a  blanket, 
and  told  me  he  had  passed  such  a  dreadful  week  through  hunger 
and  cold — for  he  had  been  obliged  to  sell  his  jacket — that  he  did 
not  care  a  straw  now  where  he  went.  I  told  him  I  was  just 
going  to  undertake  a  voyage,  on  which  I  should  be  very  glad  to 
have  good  company  ;  but  explained  to  him  at  the  same  time  the 
whole  nature  of  the  undertaking,  and,  of  course,  made  no  secret 
to  him  of  the  fears  people  here  entertained  about  my  success,  and 
what  we  should  have  to  undergo,  even  if  every  thing  went  well 


412  JOURNEY  HOUND  THE  WORLD. 

and  smoothly.  But  young  and  careless,  and  rather  in  a  scrape 
himself  at  present,  nothing  could  alter  his  mind,  and  I  agreed  at 
last  to  take  him  with  rne,  though  I  had  intended  my  canoe  only 
for  one  person,  and  had  only  provisions  laid  in  for  myself,  and 
was  not  able  now  to  take  in  any  more. 

The  young  fellow  was  about  seventeen  or  eighteen  years  old, 
and  seemed  to  have  had  a  very  good  education.  Destined  for  the 
sea,  he  had  been  serving  his  apprenticeship,  and  not  liking  the 
prospects,  ran  away  in  Melbourne  without  even  taking  a  change 
of  linen  with  him. 

For  himself,  he,  of  course,  needed  no  preparation,  and  Monday 
morning  every  thing  was  ready.  I  had  launched  the  little  craft 
on  the  Saturday,  and  taken  her  down  the  river  below  the  ferry, 
where  I  pulled  her  out  again  to  stop  some  worm-holes  in  the 
wood,  and,  in  fact,  to  pitch  her  all  over.  I  had  finished  all  this 
by  ten  o'clock  on  Monday,  and  a  perfect  crowd,  for  such  a  little 
place,  had  collected  in  the  mean  time  to  see  us  start. 

They  would  persist  also  in  christening  the  boat — it  should  not 
leave  their  town  without  a  name  ;  and  Mrs.  Heaver — a  lady 
born  in  Australia — volunteering  to  perform  the  ceremony,  broke 
a  bottle  of  brandy  over  the  bow  of  the  little  craft,  and  called 
her  the  "  Bunyip,"  after  the  fabulous  animal  which  was  said 
to  live  in  this  neighborhood — or  rather,  some  distance  down  the 
river. 

The  canoe  was  then  launched  again,  the  first  craft  which  had 
attempted  to  go  down  the  Hume  river  into  the  Murray,  Mr.  Sturt 
having  gone  down  the  Murrumbidgee  several  years  before  with  a 
large  whale-boat  and  eight  men ;  but  then  through  a  rise  of  the 
river  there  was  plenty  of  water  and  a  strong  current,  while  I 
had  scarcely  any  water.  The  river  had  not  been  so  low  as  at  pres- 
ent since  the  first  settlement  of  the  whites  on  its  banks.  But  so 
much  the  better  for  the  undertaking,  as  I  could  best  judge,  at 
such  a  state  of  the  water,  whether  the  river  would  ever  answer 
for  navigation  ;  and  having  now  overcome  every  obstacle,  I  started 
with  as  good  spirits  and  hopes  as  if  a  short  pleasure-trip  lay  before 
me,  and  not  a  long — long  tedious  voyage,  that  would  last  for 
months,  through  a  perfect  wilderness,  and  numerous  tribes  of  the 
treacherous  and  wily  blacks. 

As  soon  as  we  were  fairly  afloat,  and  had  the  bow  of  our  little 
craft  turned  down  stream,  the  people  on  shore  gave  us  three  loud 


ROYAL  MAIL  FROM  SYDNEY  TO  ALBUM".  413 

and  hearty  cheers.  I  looked  hack  and  waved  my  cap  to  them, 
as  a  farewell.  The  next  minute  the  little  hoat  shot  round  a 
projecting  point  of  the  nearest  hend,  and  we  noiselessly  glided 
over  the  smooth  water,  and  entered  the  wilderness  of  the  Aus- 
tralian forest. 


CHAPTER  III. 

A  CANOE  EXCURSION  ON  THE  HUME. 

THE  last  time  I  had  steered  a  canoe  was  in  Arkansas,  in  North 
America,  down  the  Fourche  la  Fave ;  the  canoe,  a  light  craft, 
cut  out  of  a  pine  and  perfectly  seasoned,  shooting  like  an  arrow 
rather  over  than  through  the  waters — what  a  difference  with 
this  one  !  I  had  cut  it  out  most  certainly  in  the  right  proportions, 
about  fifteen  feet  long,  a  little  more  than  two  feet  in  the  stern, 
and  worked  as  thin  as  the  brittle  wood  allowed,  but  in  spite 
of  that,  its  own  weight  made  it  sink  very  deep — and  we  too, 
with  our  provisions  and  requirements,  helped  to  press  it  down. 

The  bends  of  the  river  were  at  the  same  time  very  short, 
throwing  the  channel  of  the  stream  over  to  the  outer  shore, 
where  the  current  had  washed  and  undermined  the  banks,  and 
swept  away  all  that  grew  upon  them  ;  while  the  other  parts  of 
the  river-bed  were  nearly  always  filled  up  with  a  gravel-bar, 
leaving  us  no  chance  to  pick  our  way  round  the  most  dangerous 
places ;  but  making  us  face  them  at  once,  if  we  did  not  intend 
to  pull  our  heavy  craft  sometimes  over  perfectly  dry  ground. 

But  all  these  were  difficulties  I  had  expected  to  find,  and  I 
was  prepared  for  them.  Our  provisions  consisted  of  some  hard 
bread,  or  pilot  biscuits,  which  Mr.  Heaver  had  had  baked  for  me 
in  Albury,  some  tea,  sugar,  and  salt :  fresh  meat  I  had  to  pro- 
vide with  my  gun,  and  I  was  in  hopes  of  finding  game  enough 
along  the  shore  of  this  river,  which  ran  through  a  wilderness. 

That  night  we  camped  upon  the  left  bank  of  the  river,  after 
carrying  our  stores  up  the  bank,  for  fear  of  accident,  and  slept 
well  and  sweetly  this  first  night  in  the  bush  after  our  exertions. 
It  rained  a  little  between  twelve  and  two  o'clock,  but  not  enough 
to  disturb  us. 

The  second  day,  as  we  found  very  low  water,  we  had  to  get 
out  of  our  boat  more  than  twenty  times  to  help  her  over  the 
gravel-banks.  It  was  rather  cold  at  the  same  time,  and  pad- 


CANOE  EXCURSION  ON  THE  HUME.  415 

dling  with  naked  feet  in  the  water,  and  then,  returning  to  our 
seats,  was  not  such  pleasant  work.  The  excursion  already 
showed  another  side,  by  way  of  contrast,  to  the  romantic  part  of 
the  voyage.  I  did  not,  however,  mind  the  working  part  of  the 
business  :  we  left  each  gravel-bar  we  passed  from  that  minute 
behind  us,  and  we  could  soon  expect  a  rise  in  the  river,  which 
would  take  us  down  a  good  deal  quicker ;  but  I  felt  very  sorry  at 
finding  in  reality  one  of  my  most  cherished  expectations  fading 
away — that  of  having  good  sport  in  going  down  with  the  current, 
as  I  had  expected  to  see  all  the  wild  animals  of  that  region  come 
down  to  the  river's  bank  to  drink,  and,  in  that  case,  to  glide 
noiselessly  down  the  stream  in  the  little  craft  and  have  a  shot,  or, 
if  we  did  not  want  any  meat,  a  fair  look  at  them.  But  as  it 
turned  out,  there  was  not  the  least  chance  for  us  to  glide  down 
with  our  boat  noiselessly  even  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  for  those 
sunken  gum-trees  continually  stretched  out  their  tough  and 
unyielding  arms  over  the  surface  of  the  stream — or,  more  dan- 
gerous still,  right  below  it,  threatening  the  little  craft  on  every 
side,  so  that  we  had  continually  to  pull  out  of  the  way  of  some- 
thing or  other.  There  was  no  possibility  of  gliding  down  to  any 
kind  of  game  in  such  a  water ;  and  even  the  ducks,  of  which 
there  was  an  enormous  quantity  every  where  around  us,  would 
not  sit  still  while  they  saw  the  paddles  plied  vigorously — I  had 
to  get  out  of  the  boat  to  shoot  them,  and  head  them  below  some 
of  the  bends. 

The  season  was  at  the  same  time  as  unpleasant  as  possible :  it 
really  had  not  rained  a  good  shower  for  the  last  sixteen  months, 
and  the  reader  may  judge  how  the  soil  looked.  But  now  the 
rainy  season  seemed  to  recommence,  for  there  was  hardly  a  day 
when  a  slight  shower  did  not  fall,  and  not  a  single  night  when 
our  blankets  did  not  get  wet — and  only  too  frequently,  ourselves 
as  well.  The  third  day  it  poured  down,  and  we  got  perfectly 
soaked.  But  we  did  not  grumble  ;  we  had  undertaken  the  voy- 
age, and  I  was  determined  to  see  the  end  of  it,  or,  at  least  to  try. 

"We  noticed  some  blacks  during  the  first  few  days,  they  looked 
rather  astonished  when  they  met  us  in  a  craft  which  they  had 
not  yet  seen  in  such  a  state  of  perfection,  for  the  canoe  at  Albury 
was  a  clumsy  thing,  and  their  own  bark-canoes  only  pieces  of 
peeled  bark  lying  flat  on  the  water,  and  very  seldom  larger  than 
would  carry  a  black  with  hu<  gpear,  or  at  n?ost  two  men.  They 


416  K>(JRI4£Y  ROUND  THE  WORLD 

all  go  armed,  using  in  this  part  of  the  country  the  boomerang, 
and  short  spears,  sometimes  with  the  midla  or  the  lever,  some- 
times without  it.  But  none  of  them  showed  any  hostile  disposi- 
tion, as  they  lived  too  near  the  settlements  of  the  whites,  though 
there  have  been  some  murders  in  the  neighborhood. 

But  if  we  had  no  great  sport  in  going  down  with  the  current, 
and  more  rain  and  bad  weather  than  we  wished,  I  did  not  lose 
my  time  entirely,  for  noticing  the  river  bed  itself,  principally  the 
main  depth  of  water,  gave  me  some  employment  in  seeing  what 
difficulties  would  have  to  be  encountered  in  clearing  this  stream 
for  navigation.  Notwithstanding  the  extraordinary  low  state  of 
the  water,  a  drought  of  such  duration  may  not  happen  again  in 
a  century ;  every  where  in  the  current  of  the  stream,  principally 
in  the  bends  and  turns,  there  was  at  least  eighteen  inches  of 
water,  and  only  in  some  long  and  straight  stretches,  where  the 
river  was  some  twenty  or  thirty  feet  wide,  unbroken  by  trees,  and 
with  a  gravelly  bottom,  it  was  not  more  than  ten  or  twelve 
inches  deep.  A  man  could  have  waded  across  the  river  there 
without  wetting  his  knees. 

The  greatest  difficulty  in  navigating  the  Hume  would  lie  in 
the  short  bends,  with  a  current  always  of  at  least  four  miles,  but 
small  boats  would  have  to  contend  with  no  hindrances  impossible 
to  overcome,  if  the  river  had  once  been  cleared  from  snags,  which 
abound  in  the  most  disagreeable  places.  These  snags  must  be 
cleared  away  first,  or  any  kind  of  navigation,  even  with  caones, 
except  when  the  water  is  very  high,  is  out  of  the  question  on  the 
Hume. 

The  snags,  can  only  be  cleared  away  by  hand,  as  the  bends  in 
the  river  here  are  far  too  short  to  allow  dredging  steamers  to 
move  about  even  if  they  worked  their  way  up  through  those 
parts  of  the  river  which  lie  below.  They  could  hitch  on  to  a 
snag,  but  they  would  never  find  room  to  pull  it,  without  running 
aground.  These  logs  can  also  be  floated  away,  after  they  have 
been  sawed  off,  for  they  will  not  swim  an  inch,  and  parts  of  them 
are  also  buried  deep  in  the  sand  and  gravel,  the  bottom  of  the 
river  consisting  even  in  a  great  many  places  of  nothing  but  these 
sunken  trees,  against  and  behind  which  the  sand  settled,  rising 
higher  and  higher  with  the  different  floods,  some  of  the  limbs 
that  stuck  out  with  their  tough  and  slimy  branches,  formed  a 
hold  again  for  others  of  their  kind. 


CANOE  EXCURSION  ON  THE  HUME.  417 

But  in  low  water  all  these  trunks  could  be  easily  sawed  or  cut 
off,  and  pulled  ashore  by  horses  or  oxen,  with  chains  and  ropes. 
The  Americans  had  to  overcome  similar  and  nearly  incredible 
difficulties,  in  clearing  some  of  their  streams,  especially  Red 
River,  from  snags,  such  quantities  of  trees  and  timber  having 
floated  into  them,  as  to  form  a  perfect  raft,  filling  the  wide  bed 
of  the  deep  stream  with  solid  masses  of  wood  for  many  a  long 
mile  up,  and  growing  cotton- wood  on  their  own  surface  ;  Red 
river  had  indeed  to  look  out  for  another  bed,  working  its  way 
partly  through  the  raft,  and  partly  turning  off  to  the  right  through 
a  couple  of  lakes,  to  find  its  bed  again  below  this  hindrance.  In 
spite  of  all  these  obstacles,  they  made  the  experiment  of  over- 
coming them,  and  succeeded ;  but  the  bottoms  of  these  rivers 
have  also  a  most  valuable  soil,  to  repay  all  such  outlays  were  it 
ever  so  great ;  rich  cotton  plantations  grow  upon  the  banks  of 
those  streams,  and  large  corn-fields  every  where  prove  the  fertil- 
ity of  the  soil,  while  here  on  the  Hume  and  Murray,  very  little 
has  yet  been  done,  to  promise  a  sure  reward  for  such  heavy  out- 
lays of  money  and  labor  as  such  an  undertaking  would  demand. 

But  I  had  not  seen  the  lower  parts  of  the  stream,  and  judging 
only  by  the  appearances  of  it  up  here,  the  difficulties  seemed 
indeed  great,  but  by  no  means  warranted  it  being  looked  upon 
as  an  impossibility.  The  river,  once  cleared  of  the  snags,  will 
allow,  with  a  rather  greater  depth  of  water,  of  course,  small 
boats  to  run  up  even  to  Albury,  and  Adelaide  then  would  divert 
the  whole  trade  of  the  Murray  from  Melbourne  to  its  own  port, 
if  Melbourne  does  not  make  a  rail-road  up  to  the  Murray  by  way 
of  opposition. 

But  of  all  this,  I  should  be  able  to  judge  better  after  I  had 
seen  a  greater  part  of  the  country  :  I  shall,  therefore,  now  return 
to  rny  own  canoe  excursion,  which  was  fated  to  come  to  an  end 
much  sooner  than  I  had  expected,  and  in  fact  desired. 

On  a  fine  morning,  after  a  good  night's  rest,  and  a  hearty  sup- 
per and  breakfast  on  as  fine  a  couple  of  ducks  as  the  Hume 
River  could  produce,  wre  got  on  board  again  ;  and  having  a  long 
and  open  stretch  of  water  before  us,  went  along  at  a  very  prom- 
ising rate.  But  this  fine  progress  did  not  last  long ;  we  came 
suddenly  to  a  dead  halt,  for  right  below  us  the  whole  stream 
looked  as  if  perfectly  and  entirely  choked  up  by  a  quantity  of 
immense  gum-trees,  which  lay  across  it,  and  with  their  tops  or 


418  JOURNEY  HOUND  THE  WOULD. 

roots  into  it,  as  if  they  had  been  blown  over  by  a  downright 
hurricane.  We,  of  course,  ran  our  canoe  ashore,  and  walking 
out  upon  the  old  and  grim  logs,  which  tried  to  block  us  up,  I 
hunted  for  a  place  where  there  was  a  possibility  of  finding  a  pas- 
sage. Such  a  spot  I  found,  but  it  was  so  narrow,  and  the  cur- 
rent rushed  through  it  with  such  force,  and  hurled  its  waters 
not  ten  yards  below  against  another  wall-like  layer  of  trunks  that 
it  took  us  fully  two  hours  only  to  get  the  canoe  through  this  one 
place  ;  and  we  had  hardly  got  through  when  we  were  carried,  in 
spite  of  our  backing  water  with  all  our  strength,  against  a  stand- 
ing stump  in  the  stream,  half  filling  and  as  nearly  sinking  us 
as  possible.  Holding  on  to  the  stump  itself,  I  had  to  bail  out 
the  water  with  one  hand,  while  the  current  rushed  and  foamed 
around  us,  shooting  away  under  dark,  slimy  logs,  and  forming 
small  whirlpools  and  eddies,  at  the  same  time  working  these 
swinging  branches  to  and  fro,  and  rushing  against  the  stern  of 
rny  little  craft,  as  if  it  were  only  impatiently  waiting  the  time  to 
drag  it  to  the  bottom. 

If  we  had  been  upset  or  sunk  at  this  spot,  I  do  not  know  if  we 
could  even  have  saved  our  lives,  and  how  near  we  were  to  such 
a  fate  !  But  we  got  off  at  last,  with  hard  wrork  and  perseverance, 
arid  reached  free  and  open  water  again.  After  having  passed 
through  such  a  place,  all  the  other  dangers  seemed  insignificant, 
and  in  fact  we  thought  we  had  passed  the  worst. 

About  a  mile  below  this  place,  the  current  again  carried  us 
toward  the  right  shore,  sweeping  here  round  a  large  bend,  wash- 
ing under  the  steep  banks,  and  having  a  very  deep  but  small 
channel,  right  across  which  several  gum  trees  lay,  touching  with 
their  tops  a  place  where  another  gum-log  had  been  washed 
across,  or  had  grown,  blocking  up  the  passage  entirely,  and 
leaving  only  a  place  about  three  feet  wide,  and  exactly  under 
the  body  of  the  tree,  at  which  we  could  pass  through  to  the 
other  side. 

On  approaching  this  place,  1  again  ran  my  canoe  upon  a 
gravel  bar  in  the  middle  of  the  stream,  and  sending  my  young 
companion  out  to  examine  the  place,  and  see,  before  all  things,  if 
the  other  side  was  clear,  he  returned  in  a  short  time,  stating  it 
looked  well  enough,  and  he  thought  we  should  get  clear  of  every 
thing,  if  I  could  only  hit  exactly  the  centre  passage  under  the 
tree.  In  he  went  again  ;  we  pushed  out  into  deep  water,  and 


CANOE  EXCURSION  ON  THE  HUME.  419 

recommending  our  little  craft  to  the  benevolent  sprites  of  the 
stream,  we  soon  after  found  ourselves  in  the  rushing  current, 
driving  down  right  toward  the  tree.  Fortunately  the  canoe 
steered  well,  and  we  passed  this  place  safely,  but  right  below  it 
was  a  trunk  hidden  under  water  which  my  companion  had  over- 
looked, or  perhaps  had  not  been  able  to  distinguish  at  a  distance. 
It  was  about  six  inches  below  the  surface,  and  though  the  current 
had  force  enough  here  to  get  us  afloat  again,  it  stopped  our  head- 
way, and  there  was  not  the  least  chance  of  missing  the  nearest 
gum,  which  had  also  fallen  from  that  same  shore  with  its  top 
into  the  water,  and  against  which  we  brought  up  now,  with 
comparative  ease,  backing  water  as  hard  as  we  could,  but  with- 
out being  able  to  prevent  the  stern  swinging  round  directly. 
Here  the  current  showed  itself  too  strong  for  us — first  it  pushed  the 
heavy  canoe  half  under  the  trunk  of  the  slimy  gum,  which  lay, 
supported  by  some  of  its  tough  and  large  limbs,  nearly  above  the 
water ;  and  while  my  companion  jumped  overboard,  catching 
hold  of  our  painter,  and  trying  to  pull  the  bow  toward  him,  and 
I  myself  leaned  over  to  starboard  to  keep  the  larboard  side  from 
being  carried  under  water,  the  whole  weight  of  the  current 
pressed  too  heavily  against  our  little  craft.  For  about  a  minute 
I  was  able  to  keep  it  steady,  and  once  I  thought  we  should  even 
get  out  of  this  difficulty,  but  the  canoe  being  nearly  level  with 
the  surface,  it  only  wanted  the  least  quantity  of  water  to  fill  and 
be  done  with  her  at  once.  I  succeeded  once  in  lifting  her  up  a 
little,  but  the  next  second  a  small  stream  of  water  entered ;  I 
pressed  on  the  other  side,  but  in  vain — there  was  a  rush  of 
water,  the  canoe,  bent  over  on  her  side,  filled  at  once,  and  down 
I  went  with  it,  only  grasping,  as  I  felt  her  give  way,  my  gun 
which  always  lay  at  my  side,  and  the  next  instant  a  limb  of  the 
tree  itself,  that  I  might  not  be  swept  away  under  it. 

How  the  next  minute  passed,  I  really  do  not  know.  I  saw 
the  canoe  sink  under  me,  and  the  singular  feeling  of  my  situation 
overcame  me.  But  this  was  no  time  for  moralizing.  Getting  up 
on  the  tree  which  had  been  the  cause  of  so  much  misfortune,  I 
ran  along  the  trunk,  and  jumped  as  far  as  I  could  out  into  shal- 
lower water,  where  my  companion  was  already  standing.  The 
canoe  had  sunk  in  about  six  feet,  and  of  course  went  straight  to 
the  bottom,  while  the  lighter  part  of  our  things  floated  merrily 
down  with  the  current. 


420  .JOURNEY   ROUND   THE   WORLD. 

Fortunately,  I  had  grasped  a  little  tin  box  with  my  papers 
when  it  came  to  the  surface,  and  pulling  away  at  the  canoe, 
which  was  as  heavy  as  a  full-grown  log  now,  we  got  it  at  last  on 
the  gravel  bar  high  enough  out  of  the  water  to  bail  it  out,  find- 
ing at  the  bottom,  as  if  to  spite  us,  nothing  but  the  long-handled 
iron  frying-pan  ;  and  my  companion  was  so  mad  at  it,  that  he 
wanted  to  pitch  it  overboard  again.  Fortunately  I  stopped  him ; 
for  we  had  not  a  single  paddle  left  to  go  after  our  floating  prop- 
erty with,  and  this  frying-pan  had  to  serve  for  this  purpose  till 
we  could  get  something  better.  It  was  in  itself,  at  the  same 
time,  a  most  beautiful  instrument  for  bailing  out ;  and  five 
minutes  afterward,  my  partner  taking  his  cap  to  help,  we  had 
the  canoe  clear  and  afloat  again,  and  myself  in  it,  paddling  with 
all  possible  speed,  with  this  frying-pan  as  sole  aid,  down  the 
stream  after  the  fugitive  things. 

I  picked  up  an  old  coat  of  mine  which  hung  on  a  gum  limb 
by  a  button-hole.  On  the  same  tree  two  of  my  blankets  were 
hanging  ;  but  my  beautiful  serape  was  gone  ;  and  in  vain  I 
searched  and  dived  for  it  afterward,  but  I  never  recovered  it. 
Farther  below  there  was  a  tin  box  drifting  about  in  an  eddy ;  it 
was  the  box  with  the  tea.  And  the  boiler  had  also  lodged  at 
that  same  spot  in  the  knee  of  a  fallen  gum.  Farther  down  I 
went,  passing  some  rapids,  and  looking  every  where  for  the  pad- 
dles ;  but  I  could  see  no  sign  of  them,  and  I  had  at  last  to  give 
up  the  chase,  for  I  got  so  far  down  that  I  hardly  knew  how  to 
get  back  again. 

This  frying  pan  was  in  fact  the  most  unhandy,  unwieldy,  and 
heavy  paddle,  I  had  ever  had.  Returning  to  the  rapids,  or  ra- 
ther the  shallow  parts  of  the  river,  with  a  gravelly  bottom,  where 
the  water  had  a  considerable  fall,  I  had  to  get  out  and  pull  her; 
but  two  hours  after  our  misfortune  I  was  back  again,  and  found 
my  partner  as  wet  as  a  drowned  rat,  and  as  busy  as  a  bee,  try- 
ing to  hunt  for  some  of  our  lost  things  in  a  tree  top,  which  lay 
right  below  the  place  of  our  accident  in  the  water,  and  into 
which  the  strong  current  might  have  swept  many  things.  But 
only  with  the  greatest  difficulty,  we  saved  a  few  more  little 
articles,  and  among  them  my  hunting-pouch,  with  the  whole  store 
of  powder  and  lead  (the  powder  in  English  warranted  tin  flasks). 
I  had  given  this  up  as  a  gone  case  ;  but  when  we  pulled  over  the 
place  again,  and  looked  down  into  the  clear  water,  we  saw  the 


CANOE  EXCURSION  ON  THE  HUME.  421 

pouch  lying  beside  the  shining  and  glittering  tin  sugar-box.  With 
•one  of  our  harpoons,  we  brought  the  pouch  to  light  again,  but 
nothing  more,  though  we  searched  about  till  I  got  time  to  look 
around  for  a  camping-place. 

The  worst  thing  about  the  accident  was  the  loss  of  our  shoes, 
which  had  been  standing  in  the  canoe  since  we  had  to  jump  out 
so  often  to  help  her  along,  and  there  was  no  possibility  of  finding 
them  again.  What  to  do  now  without  shoes,  especially  as  we 
had  to  give  up  boating,  for  we  could  not  remain — it  being  the 
rainy  season — two  or  three  months  on  the  water  without  a 
stock  of  the  necessary  provisions  and  other  utensils — I  really  did 
not  know.  But  there  was  no  use  in  being  down-hearted.  Neither 
of  us  had  lost  his  life,  or  got  hurt  by  the  accident.  My  gun  was 
safe — my  powder  and  lead  too,  as  I  hoped — what  more  did  I 
want  ?  A  place  to  dry  ourselves,  and  for  that  we  had  now  to 
look.  Throwing  the  wreck  of  our  property  into  our  little  craft, 
my  partner  sat  dolefully  in  the  bow  of  the  boat,  looking  out  to 
the  right  and  left  to  discover,  if  possible,  some  more  of  the  lost 
things  among  the  bushes ;  and  I,  taking  to  the  frying-pan  again, 
sat  in  the  stern  of  the  "  Bunyip"  going  down  stream,  and  look- 
ing out  for  a  good  carnping-place  for  the  night. 

I  soon  found  a  place  where  a  couple  of  old  gum  trees  had  fallen 
over  one  another,  leaving  an  old  hollow  stump  standing  right  be- 
tween them.  Here  we  landed ;  I  soon  kindled  a  fire,  and  treading 
about  in  a  most  careful  manner  with  our  naked  feet  to  take  our 
things  on  shore,  lifting  the  pieces  of  wood  aside  to  have  a  good  log- 
heap,  and  stretch  our  things  up  to  dry,  we  had  about  an  hour 
afterward,  a  good  camp  ;  where  I  looked,  before  all  things,  to 
the  powder,  to  see  how  the  warranted  flasks  had  stood  it.  But 
I  soon  convinced  myself  of  the  fact  that  the  powder  was  all  gone, 
not  a  charge  left  dry  in  the  whole  flasks,  the  only  part  I  had 
saved  being  in  a  tight  common  powder  flask,  made  of  flattened 
cow-horn,  which  held  not  quite  a  quarter  of  a  pound,  and  had 
been  hanging  at  my  side. 

But  what  matter  ?  we  were  in  for  it,  and  had  to  go  through 
it,  that  was  all — only  the  shoes,  I  could  not  have  walked  five 
miles  without  them,  I  knew  very  well,  and  what  to  do  now  to 
get  others  ?  First  of  all  we  had  no  other  chance  but  to  go  down 
the  river  with  our  frying  pan  to  reach  some  station,  and  try  to  sell 
our  craft  there  for  a  couple  of  pair  of  shoes,  or  get  at  least  some 


422  JOURNEY  HOUND  THE  WORLD. 

other  paddles  to  go  ahead  with,  and  trust  the  rest  to  fate.  And 
down  we  lay,  close  to  a  roaring  fire,  all  our  things  spread  out 
about  us,  and  steaming  away  like  an  engine.  It  was  fortunate 
enough  we  had  no  rain  this  evening. 

It  might  have  been  one  o'clock  in  the  morning,  when  I  was 
roused  by  a  most  singular  noise,  and  rising  up  quickly,  I  had 
to  consider  fully  a  minute  before  I  could  recollect  where  I  really 
was.  I  had  been  dreaming  the  last  quarter  of  an  hour  I  was  at 
the  crater  of  some  powerful  volcano,  seeing  the  glowing  lava 
pour  out  from  it,  and  hearing  the  thundering  noise  hissing  about 
me.  When  I  opened  my  eyes  I  most  surely  dreamt  on,  for  there 
was  the  volcano,  as  true  as  life,  standing  right  before  me,  and 
throwing  up  the  fire  with  a  roaring  noise  and  sending  the  glow- 
ing sparks  high  up  toward  the  sky ;  and  at  the  foot  of  it  I  could 
see  plainly  and  clearly  as  in  broad  daylight,  the  glowing  lava 
running  down  the  steep  cliffs  of  the  mountain. 

I  j  umped  up  and  rubbed  my  eyes.  It  could  not  be  true ;  and 
still  I  could  not  doubt  a  thing  I  had  before  me,  and  my  eyes  ac- 
tually wanted  some  rubbing  before  I  could  convince  myself  I  was 
yet  on  the  banks  of  the  Murray  or  Hume,  a  poor  shipwrecked 
traveler.  But  the  volcano  ?  was  the  hollow  gum  stump,  which 
had  caught  fire,  and  was  now  burning  like  a  chimney,  with  a 
good  draught  from  below,  high  up  into  the  air,  throwing  its  sparks 
every  where  around  and  over  us,  and  that  already  had  burned 
two  holes  in  our  blankets,  which  I  had  thought  a  volcano.  The 
glowing  lava  running  down  the  hill  was  only  the  wood  we  had 
piled  up  for  the  night,  and  which  had  caught  fire  also.  There 
was  some  fun  in  being  just  saved  from  out  the  water,  and  a  few 
hours  afterward  threatened  by  fire  ;  and  we  had  really  to  sit  up 
all  night,  watching  alternately,  to  keep  our  things,  which  were 
not  perfectly  dry  yet,  from  burning. 

My  gun  1  had  put  in  order  the  first  thing  after  we  had  kin- 
dled a  fire,  and  fortunately  enough  I  had  my  large  knife  always 
buckled  around  me,  and  so  saved  that  also  ;  we  went  on  board 
again  next  morning  and  down  the  stream  to  reach  some  station, 
and  see  there  what  was  next  to  be  done. 

We  had  saved  the  bread-bag,  but  the  bread  had  been  all  soaked  ; 
the  most  of  it  washed  to  pieces  and  mixed  up  with  other  indigest- 
ible things,  compelling  us  to  look  mostly  to  my  gun  for  provisions. 
But  the  ducks  would  not  allow  me  to  approach  them  ;  the  old 


CANOE  EXCURSION  ON  THE  HUME.  423 

frying-pan  making  a  dreadful  splashing  in  the  water,  and  I 
always  had  to  leave  the  canoe,  where  we  saw  some  of  them  on 
the  water,  and  try  to  creep  up  to  them  behind  the  high  banks 
and  bushes.  But  there  had  been  a  dreadful  fire  in  the  Melbourne 
district,  that  destroyed  all  the  crops  in  the  cultivated  parts  of 
the  country,  and  the  grass  in  the  woods  for  hundreds  of  miles, 
and  really  up  to  the  banks  of  the  Murray.  Where  this  grass  had 
been  burned  off,  the  little  black,  sharp,  and  hard  stubs  were  left 
standing ;  and  running  over  this  ground,  though  I  stepped  care- 
fully, and  looked  for  the  places  upon  which  to  plant,  I  could  not 
prevent  some  of  these  sharp  points  entering  my  feet,  which  grew 
sore  directly,  and  gave  me  a  great  deal  of  pain. 

That  night  we  camped  on  the  left  shore  of  the  river,  and  start- 
ing again  next  morning  early,  reached  about  mid-day  a  fence, 
and  soon  after  a  little  settlement.  Pulling  our  boat  as  high  up 
as  we  possibly  could,  we  went  to  the  houses  ;  and  Heaven  itself 
must  have  made  this  improvement  here  for  us,  for  the  man  who 
owned  the  house  was  a  shoemaker.  And  yet  there  are  men  liv- 
ing who  do  not  believe  in  Providence  ! 

This  honest  shoemaker  had  also — wonders  will  never  cease — 
two  pair  of  shoes — he  called  them  boots — ready  made,  and  they 
fitted  us  to  a  nicety.  He  said  somebody  had  ordered  them  ;  he 
didn't  know  the  name  of  the  man,  but  he  had  plenty  of  time  to 
finish  two  other  pairs. 

Do  you  know  the  story,  dear  reader,  of  Mozart's  death  ?  One 
day  a  stranger  entered  his  house,  and  asked  Mozart  to  compose 
a  requiem  for  him.  Mozart  did  not  ask  his  name,  but  went  to 
work  ;  and  a  heart  and  soul-thrilling  melody  this  last  requiem — 
in  fact  the  last  notes  he  ever  wrote — was.  But  the  stranger 
never  came  for  it  again,  and  a  few  days  after  Mozart  was  a  corpse, 
and  the  requiem  was  played  at  his  own  burial. 

So  in  this  case,  I  am  morally  certain  some  kind  and  benevolent 
angel — never  intending  to  wear  them  himself — ordered  these 
shoes  for  us ;  and  I  am  just  as  much  convinced  he  never  called 
for  the  second  pair. 

For  these  shoes — they  were  not  paid  for  yet — we  gave  our 
canoe,  with  paddle,  viz.  ;  frying-pan,  tea-box,  harpoon,  and 
some  tobacco,  of  which  I  had  a  small  quantity  in  the  fortunate- 
ly fished  up  hunting-pouch,  and  next  day  we  commenced  our 
march  through  the  interior. 


424  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WOULD. 

By  water  we  might  have  been  about  eighty  miles  from  A 1  bury, 
by  land  not  half  that  distance  ;  and  there  lay  a  long  stretch  of 
country  before  us,  through  a  perfect  wilderness,  with  only  stations 
scattered  at  intervals,  and  many  tribes  of  those  treacherous  blacks 
we  had  already  heard  so  much  about.  Two  well-armed  men 
could  have  met  any  such  danger  with  a  light  heart  and  perfect 
confidence,  if  they  suited  each  other,  and  were  both  hardy  and 
used  to  a  bush  life,  but  with  us  it  was  a  very  different  case.  I 
had  only  a  double-barreled  gun,  one  barrel  rifled,  the  other  for 
shot,  and  a  large  American  bowie-knife,  for  our  whole  protec- 
tion. My  companion  carried  nothing  but  a  thin  sheath-knife, 
and  being  a  young  chap,  who  had  never  entered  the  bush,  or  be- 
come used  to  a  life  in  the  woods,  there  would  only  have  been  the 
possibility  of  his  getting  used  to  it,  and  learning  what  he  had  to 
learn,  had  he  not  unfortunately  thought  himself  a  great  deal 
wiser  than  any  body  else. 

Instead  of  being  thankful  for  good  advice  in  every  thing  con- 
nected with  our  present  life — -as  I  had  been  when  his  age,  and 
older  than  he  was  at  present — he  gave  saucy  answers,  and  show- 
ed, in  fact,  such  a  disagreeable  disposition,  that  I  finally  determ- 
ined on  running  the  risk  of  traveling  by  myself,  before  taking  a 
boy  with  me,  whom  I  could  teach  nothing,  or  of  whom  I  could 
learn  nothing,  whom  I  had,  on  the  contrary,  to  protect  and  to 
keep  ;  while  he,  at  the  same  time,  though  doing  more  harm  than 
good,  would  have  divided  not  only  the  fatigue  of  the  march,  but 
also  the  pleasure  and  honor  of  the  undertaking. 

So  when  we  left  the  Hume  River,  and  reached  another  nearly 
dry  water-course,  the  Edward,  to  cut  off  a  part  of  the  bends  the 
Hume  made  there,  and  a  place  whence  a  good  cart-road  went 
straight  south  about  two  hundred  miles  to  Melbourne,  I  told  him 
we  had  better  part. 

At  this  place  we  had  heard  some  bad  news  about  the  blacks : 
they  had  lately  murdered  some  whites ;  and  the  Murrumbidgee 
blacks  were  said  to  have  a  bloody  quarrel  with  the  Swan  River 
tribe,  crossing  the  woods  in  small  heavily  armed  bodies,  painted 
and  prepared  for  war  and  bloodshed,  and  always  ready  to 
take  advantage  of  travelers,  principally  those  on  foot,  they  came 
across.  So  the  shepherds,  at  least,  told  us  ;  and  my  companion, 
preferring  under  such  circumstances  a  safe  route  of  about  two 
hundred  miles,  to  an  unsafe  one  of  about  six  hundred,  especially 


CANOE  EXCURSION   ON  THE  HUME.  425 

as  I  declared  I  would  not  travel  with,  him  any  longer,  determ- 
ined on  taking  the  road  to  Melbourne. 

We  staid  that  last  night  together  in  a  place  called  the  Wool- 
shed  and  dividing  with  him  what  I  had,  except  my  weapons,  we 
parted  next  morning  perfectly  good  friends,  he  traveling  to  the 
south,  to  go  on  board  some  vessel  again  bound  homeward,  and 
I  following  the  course  of  the  Edward  by  myself,  only  with  my 
gun  and  knife,  and  entering  those  trackless  wilds  I  had  heard 
nearly  daily  such  dreadful  and  murderous  stories  about.  If  only 
the  fiftieth  part  of  them  was  true,  I  should  never  carry  my  kid- 
ney-fat— which  the  blacks  have  a  pleasant  way  of  calling  "  but- 
ter" safe  to  Adelaide. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

MARCH    THIIOUGH    THE    MURRAY    VALLEY. 

IT  was  a  fine  sunny  morning  when  I  left  the  station  I  had 
camped  at,  following  a  small  trail  which  led  through  a  thick  for- 
est of  gum  woods,  all  the  lowlands  being  covered  with  this  and 
box-timber — box- wood  being  also  a  gum  tree,  only  with  bark  of 
another  color  and  another  name.  The  Edward  River,  as  the 
water-course  was  called,  which  I  now  followed,  and  which  consist- 
ed of  an  often  broken  chain  of  water-holes,  receives  its  waters  ex- 
clusively from  the  Hume  River  ;  it  has  at  high  water  cut  for  itself 
a  nearer  channel,  apparently  to  save  the  trouble  of  going  round 
a  large  bend  to  the  south.  The  soil  on  both  sides  of  it,  in  fact, 
the  whole  bottom  which  this  bend  or  turn  includes,  and  far  out 
to  the  right  and  left,  is  a  gray  clay,  cut  up  by  innumerable 
lagoons,  or  "  billibongs,"  as  they  call  them  here. 

The  country  for  a  long  stretch  had  been  dreadfully  dry  ;  and 
even  farther  on,  it  was  the  same.  I  do  not  know  if  the  land 
would  bear  any  thing  in  favorable  seasons,  but  now  it  was  as 
hard  as  horn,  and  cracked  every  where  by  heat  and  drought. 
What  cattle  lived  on  I  really  could  not  guess ;  for  walking  for 
miles,  and  looking  carefully,  I  could  not  see  a  blade  of  grass. 
But,  they  did  not  live ;  thousands  of  them  died  that  season — as 
many  for  the  want  of  food  as  for  water.  All  these  lagoons  that 
had  held  a  little  warm,  bad-smelling  water,  were  perfectly  lined 
with  dead  and  dying  cattle,  from  which  even  the  wild  dogs  turned 
away  in  disgust,  while  the  buzzards  sat  satiated  upon  the  lowest 
branches  of  the  surrounding  trees.  It  was  a  beautiful  season  for 
buzzards.  But  of  such  a  state  of  misery  among  animals  we  have 
no  idea  in  a  civilized  country.  The  poor  brutes  that  lay  down 
in  the  woods,  too  weak  to  get  up  again,  starving  often  for  two 
or  three  days,  were,  in  comparison,  comfortable  to  those  that 
wandered  in  these  lagoons,  half  sunk  into  the  soft  and  deep  mud, 
and  having  no  strength  to  get  out,  or  even  to  lift  their  feet  or 


MARCH  THROUGH  THE  MURRAY  VALLEY.     427 

raise  their  heads,  they  became  a  prey  to  the  prowling  wolves 
and  wild  dogs.  These  latter  animals,  passing  by  their  dead  com- 
panions, walked  deliberately  up  to  them,  tore  off  a  piece  of  flesh, 
then  left  them  to  die  in  lingering  pain,  while  the  crows  and 
magpies  picked  out  their  eyes,  sometimes  days  before  life  became 
extinct. 

The  sheep  were  also  the  victims  of  an  epidemic  disease — a 
kind  of  glanders.  I  believe  they  called  it  the  "  katarrh,"  and 
whole  flocks  died  in  a  few  days,  or  had  to  be  killed,  to  prevent 
the  disease  spreading  to  other  flocks.  One  settler  on  the  Hume, 
between  "Woolshed  and  Albury,  killed  nine  hundred  head  of 
sheep  on  one  spot,  and  burnt  them  in  lime  to  save  his  remain- 
ing flocks.  It  was,  in  fact,  a  most  dreadful  season  ;  and  though 
I  am  perfectly  convinced  many  years  may  pass  before  another 
will  ravage  the  land,  it  is  at  best  but  an  undesirable  country  in 
which  such  seasons  can  occur. 

But  here  on  the  Edward,  commences  the  best  country  for  sheep- 
farming  in  the  whole  of  Australia.  The  reason  of  this  is  the 
existence  here  of  a  small  kind  of  shurb,  "  salt-bush,"  it  is  called, 
which  possesses,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  a  saline  taste,  and 
juicy  leaves  which  sheep  are  said  to  be  fond  of  feeding  upon. 
Besides  this,  a  very  juicy  plant,  a  kind  of  cactus,  with  short,  thick, 
three-cornered  leaves,  or  leaf-like  stems,  filled  with  water,  grew 
every  where.  In  the  most  dry  places,  where  no  rain  had  fallen  for 
a  very  long  time,  I  found  this  plant  ("  pig's-face,"  as  the  shepherds 
have  christened  it  in  their  simple  way),  in  abundance,  running 
along  the  ground  like  a  vine,  and  throwing  out  leaves  upon 
leaves,  like  a  cactus.  There  are  several  kinds  of  this  pig's  face ; 
some  are  bitter  and  hard,  others  saline,  and  one  nearly  sweet, 
with  a  pleasant  taste.  I  have  eaten  many  a  meal  of  these  plants 
with  considerable  relish.  The  blacks  eat  it  also  in  great  quanti- 
ties ;  but  this  can  not  be  called  a  recommendation,  for  they  eat 
every  thing. 

The  vegetation  was  in  every  other  respect  the  same  here,  as 
farther  up  the  river — gum  trees  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  river, 
and  tea  and  broom  trees,  with  salt-bush  in  the  so-called  box-tim- 
ber, which  grows  over  the  feats.  The  broom  tree  bears  its  name 
justly  enough  ;  it  looks  exactly  like  a  broom  which  has  come 
open  ;  but  why  they  call  the  other  the  tea-bush,  is  a  secret,  none 
of  them  could  or  would  divulge.  But  the  most  doleful-looking 


428  JOURNEY  HOUND  THE  WORLD. 

of  all  the  plants  is  the  lignum — a  bush  which  grows  only  in 
flooded  places,  and  looks  exactly  as  if  the  cattle  had  eaten  off  the 
leaves  ;  but  the  bush  grows  in  this  way,  and  neither  cattle  nor 
sheep  touch  the  bitter  and  wood-like  branches. 

That  first  night  I  camped  in  a  little  box- wood  thicket,  shoot- 
ing for  my  supper  a  cockatoo  out  of  a  flock  roosting  in  some  of 
the  tall  gum  trees  close  to  the  Edward  River.  "When  it  came 
down  to  the  ground,  after  the  shot,  all  the  other  birds,  and  more 
than  a  hundred  from  a  neighboring  flock,  fled  by,  some  scream- 
ing and  flying  away ;  others  darting  down  upon  the  nearest 
branch  to,  or  on  the  ground  where  their  dead  companion  lay.  I 
have  eaten  cockatoos  afterward  several  times,  for  they  are  always 
better  than  nothing  ;  but  I  felt  each  time  disgusted  at  the  looks 
and  the  taste  of  the  meat.  It  is  dry,  dark,  tough,  with  an  ugly 
parrot  smell  I  could  never  overcome. 

Up  to  the  23d  of  May,  nothing  remarkable  happened  ;  fortu- 
nately the  weather  kept  dry ;  and  those  nights  I  had  to  camp 
out,  I  lay  warm  enough,  with  a  good  fire,  which  I  could  kindle 
every  where.  When  I  was  able  to  reach  a  station,  I  was  re- 
ceived in  a  most  hospitable  manner.  I  really  believe  there  is  no 
country  in  the  world  where  hospitality  is  carried  to  a  greater  ex- 
tent than  in  Australia.  Poor  shepherds,  who  have  their  twenty 
or  twenty-five  pounds  a  year  and  their  rations,  living  in  a  place 
belonging  to  a  kind  of  thoroughfare  from  one  settlement  to  an- 
other, allow  strangers  to  stay  with  them  maybe  three  or  four 
times  every  week.  They  will  never  turn  them  from  their  doors, 
nor  ask  the  least  remuneration  for  the  shelter  and  diet  they  have 
provided ;  indeed,  they  seem  ashamed  to  take  money  from  the 
traveler,  and  feel  insulted  at  the  offer.  Should  he  chance  to  have 
tobacco  with  him,  they  will  thankfully  accept  a  little,  as  though 
they  considered  it  the  most  valuable  present  in  the  world. 

One  afternoon  I  passed  a  shepherd's  hut,  and  finding  the  hut- 
keeper  at  the  door,  inquired  of  him  the  direction  to  the  nearest 
head-station.  He  gave  it  to  me  ;  but  when  I  wanted  to  start 
off  he  would  not  let  me  go  till  I  had  taken  a  good  dinner  of  mut- 
ton chops,  damper  and  a  quart  of  tea ;  then  he  wanted  me  to 
stay  a  day  or  two  with  him  to  rest  myself,  and  to  have  a  "  good 
long  talk"  with  me.  I  staid  to  eat  some  dinner,  for  I  had  had 
nothing  that  morning,  but  assured  him  that  I  must  push  on  to 
reach  Adelaide.  While  we  were  eating,  I  observed  that  his 


MARCH  THROUGH  THE  MURRAY  VALLEY.      429 

pocket-knife  was  broken,  and  knowing  that  there  was  no  chance 
of  his  obtaining  another  in  the  bush,  I  offered  him  one  of  several 
i  had  brought  with  me  from  Sydney,  to  trade  with  the  blacks, 
which  having  been  in  the  shot-pouch,  I  had  preserved.  He  ac- 
cepted it  with  pleasure ;  but  immediately  took  from  under  the 
roof  a  five-shilling  bank-note,  that  had  been  given  him  by  a  Cap- 
tain Baggott,  one  of  the  largest  stock-holders  in  Australia,  and 
offered  it  to  me.  I  asked  him  if  he  would  take  money  for  his 
"  grub."  At  this  question  he  reddened  up  to  his  ears,  then  look- 
ing earnestly  at  me  a  moment,  exclaimed,  shaking  me  by  the 
hand  :  "I  ought  not  to  be  in  a  rage  with  you  ;  you  did  not  do  it 
on  purpose." 

He  was  a  fine-looking  young  chap,  with  fair  curly  hair,  and 
cheeks  as  red  as  a  rose ;  but  he  did  not  like  the  life  in  the  bush ; 
it  was  too  monotonous,  and  he  wanted  to  get  back  to  Melbourne, 
whence  he  had  come,  as  it  seemed,  with  rather  romantic  ideas, 
that  did  not  harmonize  with  the  gum  trees  and  salt  bushes. 
While  mentioning  him,  I  must  not  forget  to  state  that  I  heard 
him  whistle  a  tune  ;  it  struck  me,  for  I  had  heard  it  almost  all 
round  the  world.  In  California  it  was  whistled  and  sung  in  the 
mines,  and  in  San  Francisco  ;  at  Tahiti  I  heard  it ;  and  in  Aus- 
tralia, if  you  beheld  a  shepherd  walking  down  that  dreary 
stretch  of  the  Murray  Straits  after  his  sheep,  when  you  came 
near  enough,  you  were  sure  to  hear  the  same  melody.  I  have 
carried  it  with  me  to  Java ;  and  Lembany  and  Batavia  have 
heard  the  familiar  words — "  You  are  going  far  away,  far  away 
from  poor  Jeanette  !" 

I  found  a  fox-hunter  at  one  of  the  stations  I  visited  ;  but,  for 
want  of  foxes,  he  chased  wild  dogs.  He  kept  a  kennel  of  excel- 
lent hounds,  with  a  huntsman,  whip,  and  feeder,  and  twice  a 
week,  at  least,  he  was  out  almost  every  time  killing  two  or 
three  wild  dogs,  and  sometimes  having  a  fine  run  through  the 
open  country,  These  hounds,  trained  solely  to  chase  wild  dogs, 
are  not  allowed  to  run  kangaroos  or  ernus. 

The  23d  of  May  I  came  to  a  place  called  Mouleman,  from  a 
little  creek  of  the  same  name,  which  seemed  also  to  run  into  the 
Edward — when  it  had  water  ;  but  now  formed  only  one  of  the 
numerous  dry  billibongs.  At  Mouleman  there  was  a  police- 
station,  and  I  heard  the  first  threatening  accounts  of  the  blacks. 
Several  murders  had  been  committed  lately  on  single  travelers ; 


430  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

and  one  ol  the  dingy  rascals,  who  had  confessed  to  two,  was  in 
prison  at  this  very  time.  But  so  lenient  were  British  magistrates 
with  these  black  fellows,  that  every  body  at  Mouleman  expect- 
ed the  judge  would  let  this  villain  off. 

He  was  known  as  "  Billy  the  Bull."  He  had  knocked  down  a 
poor  wandering  white  man,  and  drowned  him  in  the  river  ;  and 
though  he  had  named  the  place  where  the  body  lay,  it  could  not 
be  found  till  he  was  taken  to  show  the  exact  spot.  He  now 
displayed  the  fiendish  sagacity  with  which  he  had  hid  the  corpse  ; 
for,  diving  down  for  it  in  a  deep  hole,  he  brought  it  up.  It  was 
then  discovered  that  he  had  taken  the  murdered  man,  after  rob- 
bing him,  of  course,  of  every  article  of  clothing  and  his  kidney- 
fat,  to  this  deep  hole,  and  staked  the  body  there  under  water, 
by  driving  a  little  sharpened  piece  of  wood,  with  a  hook  at  the 
upper  end,  through  him  into  the  soil,  which  at  that  place  was 
covered  by  nearly  two  fathoms  of  deep  water.  He  was  suspected 
of  having  committed  many  other  murders ;  but  of  these  no  evi- 
dence could  be  brought  against  him,  he  having,  as  it  was  al- 
leged, also  murdered  the  witnesses. 

Besides  this  wretch,  the  police  had  tried  to  take  two  other 
blacks,  called  Peter  and  Bill,  who  had  murdered  several  white 
men  ;  but  the  rascals  had  heard  that  they  were  wanted,  and  had 
fled  to  the  bush. 

These  accounts  were  disheartening,  as  I  was  approaching  the 
most  dangerous  places ;  but  I  could  not  avoid  the  danger,  nor 
obtain  a  black  companion  to  assist  me  against  the  wiles  of  these 
wild  and  reckless  tribes.  Such  a  companion,  however,  was  more 
likely  to  be  my  murderer  than  my  guide,  if  he  thought  he  could 
escape  from  justice  ;  nor  would  any  black  man  have  followed 
me,  even  if  he  had  meant  honestly,  over  the  boundary  of  his  tribe. 
All  the  settlers  agreed  that  a  white  man,  traveling  through  the 
bush,  would  be  far  less  in  danger,  if  properly  armed,  when  he 
went  alone,  than  with  a  black  man  for  his  guide,  except  he 
changed  him  at  every  tribe ;  and  even  then  it  was  not  thought 
prudent. 

These  tribes  believe  in  no  natural  death.  Each  savage  who 
dies  away  from  his  companions,  must  be,  according  to  their  ideas, 
the  victim  of  some  deadly  witchcraft  practiced  by  another  tribe. 
This  may  have  been  committed  in  many  different  ways,  but  the 
result  is  always  the  same  ;  they  have,  in  the  corpse,  the  fact  be- 


MARCH  THROUGH  THE  MURRAY  VALLEY.     431 

fore  them,  and  act  accordingly :  the  women  frequently  driving 
the  men  out  of  camp  to  avenge  the  deed,  though  the  latter  are 
generally  sufficiently  eager  for  it. 

They  paint  or  hesmear  themselves  with  a  white  kind  of  earth, 
found  in  the  neighborhood,  and  howl,  wail,  cry  and  scream,  day 
and  night,  till  they  determine  never  to  return  to  carnp  till  they 
have  brought  the  kidney-fat  of  an  enemy  to  atone  for  the  spirit 
of  their  slain  brother.  If  that  brother  had  died  of  the  measles, 
the  wailing  is  then  changed  to  the  wildest  joy. 

The  natural  consequence  of  this  is  a  deadly  warfare  that  neigh- 
boring tribes  carry  on  continually  against  each  other ;  they  there- 
fore do  not  trust  themselves  beyond  their  own  boundaries,  or  even 
near  them,  except  in  small  armed  war  parties,  got  up  on  purpose 
to  commit  a  murder. 

The  worst  tribes  for  these  bloody  usages  are  the  northern  and 
eastern,  particularly  the  Murrumbidgee,  Swanhill,  and  Darling 
tribes ; » but  farther  west,  below  Lake  Boni,  where  the  Indians 
are  not  half  as  ferocious  and  bloodthirsty,  they  have,  at  the  burial 
of  their  dead,  some  ceremonies  and  dances,  with  a  kind  of  sham 
battle,  at  which,  by  way  of  an  atonement,  some  blood  must  be 
shed.  Even  these  tribes  are  not  friendly  to  each  other.  The 
Lake  Boni  blacks  imagine  they  can  change  the  weather  by  bury- 
ing some  shrubs,  and  scratching  them  out  again ;  and  suspect  the 
blacks,  located  above  them,  on  the  Murray,  of  having  poisoned 
the  water  of  the  river,  and  caused  the  death  of  many  of  their 
people.  But  back  to  my  voyage. 

One  of  the  gentlemen  of  a  plantation  had  sent  down  to  Mel- 
bourne to  engage  a  preacher  for  his  neighbors  in  the  bush.  This 
being  a  comparatively  thick  settled  place,  several  people  living 
not  more  than  ten  or  twelve  miles  from  each  other,  and  having 
had  no  sermon  through  the  year,  had  collected  a  sum  of  money, 
intending  that  each  should  have  the  reverend  gentleman  a  cer- 
tain time  upon  his  "run,"  arid  make  up  the  deficiency  by  sub- 
scriptions among  the  men.  This  arrangement  could  scarcely  be 
a  satisfactory  one  to  the  preacher,  and  created  the  greatest  dis- 
satisfaction among  the  shepherds,  hut-keepers,  stock-keepers,  cooks 
and  other  servants  who  were  expected  to  pay  their  quota  of  his 
salary. 

On  this  subject,  I  heard  opinions  so  freely  expressed  that  I  am 
quite  sure  the  Murray  Scrub  is  not  a  soil  favorable  for  preachers. 


432  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

Traveling  in  the  way  I  did,  I  was  sure  to  behold  the  inhabit- 
ants of  the  bush  in  their  natural  state,  for,  whenever  I  could 
reach  a  station,  many  a  long  hour  have  I  listened  to  the  conver- 
sation of  this  most  mixed  population,  with  the  delight  of  a  man 
who  sees  a  perfectly  new  world  opened  to  him — a  world  fre- 
quently full  of  wild  and  thrilling  interest,  which  very  few  edu- 
cated travelers  have  ever  seen. 

In  no  place  is  the  aristocratic  influence  so  strong ;  this  too  pre- 
vailed more  or  less  through  the  whole  of  Australia  at  that  time 
— for  the  gold  mines  have  now  demolished  all  distinctions.  In 
the  backwoods  of  America,  the  farmers  with  their  "  helps,"  as 
they  are  called,  most  frequently  form  a  single  family,  work  to- 
gether in  the  fields,  and  eat  at  one  table.  The  gentleman  in  the 
bush,  the  stock-holder,  and  owner  of  runs,  has  his  own  house,  his 
own  table — house  and  kitchen  being  two  widely  different  things. 
The  men,  as  shepherds,  and  hut  and  store-keepers  are  called, 
have  their  own  phraseology.  Their  master  is  spoken  of  as  "  the 
old  'un,"  or  "  the  old  cove ;"  a  "  cove"  meaning,  when  they  talk 
of  themselves,  a  thorough  cunning  and  smart  fellow,  synonymously 
with  "  old  hand."  The  gentlemen  are  commonly  called  "  swells," 
such  name  being  given  to  all  who  dress  respectably — not  in  a 
"  bush  shirt." 

A  traveler  on  horseback,  if  he  looks  well-bred  or  well-off,  is 
taken  directly  into  the  house  of  the  owner ;  he  is  treated  as  a 
gentleman,  his  bed  is  prepared  for  him  in  European  fashion,  and 
his  horse  is  brought  to  the  door  for  him  next  morning,  if  he  does 
not  intend  to  stay  any  longer.  He  travels  in  this  way  from  sta- 
tion to  station,  never  communing  with  the  men,  and  is  styled  by 
them  "  a  swell." 

The  traveler  on  foot  is  never  received  with  less  hospitality,  let 
his  appearance  be  as  it  may ;  and  mine  was  not  very  satisfactory 
after  the  shipwreck.  But  he  is  very  seldom  allowed  to  enter  the 
house,  his  place  is  in  the  kitchen,  where  he  is  styled,  in  the  most 
kind  and  friendly  manner,  "  mate."  In  the  largest  head  station, 
or  in  the  poorest  shepherd's  hut,  the  treatment,  is  the  same ; 
whatever  the  cook  or  hut-keeper  has  in  his  larder  he  brings  for- 
ward for  the  guest,  and  the  "  Welcome  with  all  my  heart,"  of  the 

house  is  not  warmer  than  the  "  You're welcome  to  it,"  in  the 

kitchen. 

A  rougher  and  more  mixed  set  of  people — in  character  not  in 


MARCH  THROUGH  THE  MURRAY  VALLEY.     433 

nation,  for  they  are  nearly  all  English  and  Irish — I  have  never 
met  with ;  and  I  soon  found  that  I  had  been  told  the  truth  in 
Sydney,  where  I  was  assured  that  of  twenty  white  men  on  the 
Murray,  sixteen  had  been  old  convicts,  or  "  government's  men," 
as  they  more  politely  are  called,  among  themselves.  But  the 
past  lies  behind  them,  like  an  old  pack  of  letters  of  former  years, 
wrapped  and  tied  up  closely,  the  contents  marked  on  the  cover 
with  a  few  words,  and  the  whole  put  in  some  dusty  corner,  hardly 
ever  to  be  opened  again,  certainly  not  in  the  presence  of  a 
stranger.  Old  acquaintances  may  turn  over  once  in  a  while  the 
old  leaves,  but  they  do-  not  like  to  have  a  stranger  peer  into  those 
times  which  are  full  of  painful  recollections  :  though  most  of 
them  may  have  been  hardened  in  crime  before. 

Only  one  fellow  could  I  meet  with  among  them  who  seemed 
to  recollect  old  times  with  a  kind  of  grim  pleasure.  He  was  an 
Irishman,  stout  built  and  broad-shouldered,  twenty-five  years  in 
the  country — having  left  his  own  for  his  country's  good,  like  the 
rest;  yet  he  had  the  full  Irish  brogue  upon  him.  I  met  him  one 
night  in  a  stock-keeper's  hut  on  the  Hume,  and  he  spoke  of  olden 
times,  before  he  had  joined  the  Temperance  Society. 

"  Arrah,"  he  said,  "  I  must  really  take  to  drinking  again,  for 
niver  a -bit  they  have  mentioned  me  name  in  the  paipers  since 
that  time." 

"  How  so  ?" 

"  Clear  enough,  as  the  magistrates — saving  your  prisence — put 
it  in  themselves,  having  to  set  down  Mister  O'Rinker,  Esq.,  being 
meself,  weekly  for  so  and  so  many  floggins ;  the  said  gintleman 
having  at  the  same  time  frequently  the  advantage  of  the  stocks 
instead  of  the  stockings." 

"  But  it's  another  thing  now,  Patrick,"  the  stock-keeper  would 
say ;  "  now  the  magistrates  esteem  you,  since  you  don't  drink 
and  make  a  beast  of  yourself.  We  ought  to  show  these  English 
(the  stock-keeper  being  Irish  too)  any  how  that  we  can  live  with- 
out whisky  a  sight  better  than  they." 

"English?"  Patrick  cried,  turning  round  in  his  chair,  and 
taking  a  good  look  at  the  stock-keeper.  ' '  Our  magistrate  ?  He 
can't  ask  for  a  glass  of  wather  in  English  !  He's  Irish  to  the 
back  bone,  that  he  is  ;  and  as  for  being  a  magistrate,  why,  when 
he  came  here,  a  couple  of  years  or  so  ago,  he  hadn't  the  second 
shirt  to  his  back — not  as  many  clothes  as  would  wipe  a  cart  wheel 

T 


434  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

with.  But  he  has  put  the  '  Esq.'  upon  his  letters  with  a  vin- 
geance ;  and  I'll  have  it  on  mine,  '  Ration-carrier,  Esq.'  doesn't 
sound  so  had." 

This  Patrick  was  a  thoroughbred  old  villain,  and  as  such  known 
in  the  neighborhood  ;  but  a  funny  fellow  notwithstanding. 

The  conversation  in  these  huts,  if  it  does  not  turn  upon  runa- 
way oxen,  is  sometimes  interesting;  bushrangers  and  jolly  blacks 
— jolly  having  here  the  meaning  of  saucy,  wild,  impudent — with 
hut-breaking  and  sheep  and  horse-stealing  forming  the  chief  sub- 
jects. The  greatest  bores  are  those  who  talk  about  stray  oxen ; 
and  if  the  right  people  for  such  a  theme  come  together,  they  will 
continue  till  eleven  and  twelve  o'clook  in  the  night  talking  of 
dun-faced,  red  and  white,  and  spotted  oxen,  with  the  mark  upon 
the  off-hip,  or  the  shoulder,  with  a  crumpled,  or  a  bended  down 
horn,  for  hours  ;  sometimes  discussing  whether  the  tuft  of  its  tail 
was  black  or  white.  They  have  had  hardly  any  education,  some 
none ;  were  sent  out,  most  of  them,  in  their  youth,  and  it  is  very 
seldom  one  can  be  found  able  to  scrawl  his  name  on  a  piece  of 
paper.  Their  conversation  is  also  equally  rough  and  coarse  ;  the 
word  "bloody,"  taking  a  most  conspicuous  place  in  the  bush  dic- 
tionary. It  is  often  used  with  a  most  friendly  and  kind  meaning ; 
and,  disgusting  as  it  at  first  sounds,  the  ear  gets  used  to  it  at  last. 

Frequently  the  traveler  finds  in  these  huts,  old  bushmen  who 
have  lived  a  life-time  in  the  wild  scrub  of  the  country ;  have 
hunted  and  fought  with  the  blacks;  have  been  robbed  by,  and 
have  sometimes  robbed  with,  the  bushranger ;  have  fought  the 
police,  then  taken  to  the  bush  and  led  a  life  that  Europeans  read 
of  with  incredulity.  If  you  get  them  to  talk — which  requires  a 
longer  time  than  a  few  hours  acquaintance — you  learn  more  in 
one  hour  of  the  wild  life  of  the  bush  than  by  a  year's  residence 
with  the  swells.  I  have  several  times  met  such  men. 

I  was  once  traveling  with  an  old  hand  for  two  days,  and  over 
a  country  in  which  he  had  passed  the  most  active  portion  of  his 
life.  He  showed  me  the  places  on  the  river  where  he  had  camped 
with  the  different  tribes,  or  "  mobs,"  as  they  are  called  here ; 
and  the  particulars  he  gave  sometimes  made  my  hair  stand  on 
end.  To  my  questions  as  to  what  had  led  him  to  embrace  such 
a  life,  he  gave  evasive  answers ;  but  by  all  he  told  me,  he  must 
have  been  a  bushranger,  staying  with  some  mob  of  the  blacks  to 
keep  out  of  sight  of  the  white  police,  or  securing  protection  by 


MARCH  THROUGH  THE  MURRAY  VALLEY.     435 

helping  them  to  murder  and  rob.  I  must  acknowledge  that  some- 
times I  did  not  feel  quite  comfortable  in  his  company,  when  I 
heard  him  relate  stories  of  blood  of  the  most  fearful  description, 
as  though  they  were  the  incidents  of  a  day's  sport.  But  the  cause 
of  his  wild  and  reckless  life  had  disappeared,  and  he  had  become 
a  quiet  and  honest  laborer,  who  thought  of  his  antecedents  as  the 
"  recollections  of  a  merry  youth."  Only  once  he  shuddered,  but 
that  was  in  the  course  of  a  long  and  wild  story,  for  which  I  can 
not  find  room. 

I  do  not  intend  to  say  that  all  the  wild  characters  who  had 
been  sent  out  here,  and  now  form  the  majority  of  the  population, 
have  become  good  and  honest  people  ;  no,  there  is  many  a  rascal 
among  them  yet,  and  not  unfrequently  huts,  without  any  other 
fastening  than  a  piece  of  board  or  bark,  are  broken  open  and 
robbed  of  the  few  things  they  contain,  and  the  few  dollars  some 
poor  shepherd  has  saved.  Horses  are  stolen,  sometimes  only  to 
use  them  for  a  certain  distance,  and  let  them  run  again ;  some- 
times to  exchange  them  for  others,  if  they  are  not  known  there, 
or  to  sell  them.  But  even  if  they  are  known,  there  is  nothing 
easier  than  to  deceive  people  in  the  bush  with  a  counterfeit  cer- 
tificate, or  a  bill  of  sale.  Notes  are  forged,  principally  on  well- 
known  stock-holders,  for  five,  ten  or  fifteen  shillings,  sometimes 
for  one  and  two  pounds ;  justice  and  punishment,  however,  are 
often  evaded. 

Police-stations  are  too  far  apart  in  the  bush,  sometimes  a  hun- 
dred— ay,  two  and  three  hundred  miles  distant  from  each  other. 
Should  a  thief  break  into  a  hut  and  steal  blankets,  possum-rugs, 
or  provisions,  and  it  is  discovered,  his  pursuers  that  same  night 
must  hasten  first  fifty  miles  to  a  magistrate,  while  he  is  speeding 
in  another  direction  ;  his  capture,  therefore,  is  almost  impossible. 
It  is  strange  that  the  sufferers  very  seldom  think  of  taking  the 
law  in  their  own  hands,  as  the  people  of  the  United  States  would 
most  certainly  do  under  such  circumstances.  They  frequently 
follow  and  overtake  the  thief  and  take  the  stolen  things  from 
him ;  but  hardly  ever — in  fact  I  never  heard  of  such  a  case — 
punish  him  ;  and  let  him  escape,  rather  than  seek  the  assistance 
of  the  law. 

Such  conduct,  of  course,  encourages  the  depredators  ;  but  were 
Lynch-law  brought  to  bear  against  them,  they  would  soon  avoid 
bringing  a  couple  of  those  wild  bushmen  upon  their  heels. 


436  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

From  here  the  malley-bush  commenced  ;  which  is  of  some 
moment  to  the  traveler,  since  it  gives  the  whole  country  a  per- 
fectly new  aspect.  The  flats  and  bottoms  retain,  of  course,  their 
old  timber — gum  trees  of  all  shapes  and  varieties  in  the  bark, 
and  all  with  the  same  hard,  dry,  and  turpentine-like  leaves  ;  but 
the  hilly  ground  gains  a  new  shrub,  or  bush,  and  the  country 
looks  much  more  agreeable. 

The  maliey-bush  sends  out  of  one  root  from  five  to  fifteen  and 
more  shoots,  rising,  with  a  slight  outward  curve  close  to  the  bot- 
tom, for  nearly  three-quarters  of  the  whole  height,  smooth  and 
slender,  and  growing  to  a  narrow  and  shady  top  ;  which  spread- 
ing wide  in  circumference,  and  coming  out  of  such  a  compara- 
tively small  root,  gives  the  bush  very  much  the  shape  of  a  nose- 
gay. The  leaves  of  the  malley  are  of  course  exactly  like  those 
of  the  gum  trees,  which  are  so  singularly  shaped,  that  if  they 
have  left  the  tree  you  can  never  tell  which  side  had  been  up  and 
which  down  ;  but  the  color  of  the  malley  leaves  is  much  livelier 
than  that  of  the  gums,  the  petal  having  a  reddish  hue,  with  a 
berry  of  a  similar  color. 

With  the  malley,  on  hilly,  or  at  least  high  and  dry  ground, 
grows  the  Australian  pine  tree — undoubtedly  the  finest  tree  in 
Australia,  except  the  cedar.  I  have  never  seen  large  trees,  in 
fact,  no  pine  more  than  fifteen  inches  in  diameter,  though  I  am 
told  they  grow  to  three  feet.  It  is  really  a  beautiful  tree,  with  a 
lively  shaded  green,  and  a  gray,  slender,  and  finely-marked  bark. 
Perhaps  it  would  have  appeared  less  beautiful  had  it  stood  in 
some  other  country,  surrounded  by  as  fine,  or  finer  trees ;  but 
here,  among  the  gums,  its  graceful  shape,  and  the  fine  color  of 
its  branches  and  tinted  leaves,  were  extremely  attractive.  Its 
wood  is  firm  and  white,  and  would  be  most  excellent  for  all  kinds 
of  carpenter's  work,  but  for  the  great  many  small  knots  it  pos- 
sesses. 

The  soil  where  malley  bushes  and  pines  grow  is  throughout  a 
red  sand,  producing  in  a  tolerable  good  season  an  exceedingly  good 
crop  of  wild  oats.  At  my  visit,  the  only  signs  of  such  a  growth 
appeared  here  and  there  in  small  sickly  blades — the  weather  had 
been  too  dry  for  any  thing  else. 

These  malley  bushes  form  on  both  sides  of  the  river — com- 
mencing where  the  first  sandy  hills  rise — thickets,  which  are 
rendered  more  impenetrable,  if  possible,  by  the  long  and  hard 


MARCH  THROUGH  THE  MURRAY  VALLEY.     437 

porcupine  grass — a  most  excellent  name  for  this  plant — which 
grows  nearly  always  in  peculiar  shapes,  in  long  rows,  or  half- 
moons,  or  round  beds,  or  wreaths,  or  garlands,  every  where  through 
the  bush,  and  must  be  very  disagreeable  to  the  barefooted  blacks. 

Some  particular  species  of  this  malley  attracts  thousands  of 
blacks  to  live  in  the  interior,  for  without  it  they  would  not  be 
able  to  exist  in  those  places.  It  holds,  even  in  the  most  barren 
soil,  a  supply  of  fresh  water  in  its  roots  ;  these  the  natives  dig 
up,  break  into  small  pieces,  arid  put  into  a  trough  or  hollow 
bark ;  and  a  large  quantity  of  water  oozes  out  of  the  roots  which 
is,  in  fact,  the  only  supply  of  this  liquid  they  can  obtain.  This 
summer,  as  I  was  told  by  the  settlers,  the  weather  had  been  so 
exceedingly  dry,  as  even  to  rob  this  bush  of  its  juice  ;  and  those 
blacks  who  had  lived  on  the  malley,  and  were  called  Malley 
Blacks  or  Worrigels,  by  the  other  natives,  were  forced  to  go  to 
the  river  banks ;  and  were  as  a  matter  of  course  attacked  by  the 
other  mobs,  through  whose  hunting-ranges  they  had  to  pass. 
The  settlers  told  me  that  this  should  be  another  reason  why  I 
ought  to  keep  a  sharp  look-out  wherever  I  went,  for  the  mobs  on 
the  banks  of  the  Murray  had  by  these  additional  tribes,  become 
much  more  numerous  than  they  were ;  and  it  would  be  a  good 
plan  for  me  not  to  have  intercourse  with  any  of  them,  as  not  one 
was  to  be  trusted. 

Some  days  afterward  I  reached  Logan  River,  so  called  from 
the  union  of  the  Wakool  and  Edward — both  coming  and  going 
out  and  into  the  Murray  or  Hume.  The  Logan  is  only,  I  believe, 
forty  rniles  long,  and  was  at  this  time  perfectly  stagnant.  When 
the  water  in  the  main  channel  rises,  the  flood  overflows  the 
banks,  and  fills  all  these  river-like  beds,  and  thousand  of  lagoons 
and  billibongs,  which  were  now  only  small  ditches  of  filthy  water, 
poisoned  by  hundreds  of  dead  cattle. 

When  I  reached  the  Hume,  or  Murray,  as  they  call  it  here — 
though  by  the  maps  it  takes  the  name  of  Murray  only  upon  its 
junction  with  the  Murrumbidgee — the  water  had  risen  consider- 
ably ;  but  the  character  of  the  river  was  the  same  as  it  was  far- 
ther up  ;  only  the  turns  it  made  were  not  so  short,  and  the  woods 
on  its  banks  not  so  thick.  The  depth  of  the  river  seemed  con- 
siderable, and  but  for  the  frequent  bends,  which  make  a  journey 
by  water  exceedingly  long,  I  really  think  the  river  could  be 
made,  at  some  expense,  certainly,  navigable. 


438  JOUUNEY  HOUND  THE  WORLD. 

The  only  question  for  consideration  is — can  the  banks  of  the 
Murray,  bottom  and  hilly  land,  with  its  pastures,  be  ever  able 
to  pay  the  cost  of  river  navigation  and  the  maintenance  of  steam- 
ers ?  Can  those  woods,  can  the  soil  produce  enough  to  induce  a 
larger  population  to  settle  here,  and  create  new  wants,  to  be  sup- 
plied by  boats  which  would  take  back  their  produce  ? 

I  am  not  able  to  answer  this.  I  have  not  lived  long  enough  in 
the  country. 

There  is  hardly  any  where  a  better  country  for  sheep  than 
Australia ;  and  the  Murray  Scrub,  with  its  salt-bush  and  pig's- 
face,  and  immense  runs,  is  considered  the  best  part  of  it ;  there- 
fore not  a  doubt  exists  that  a  large  quantity  of  sheep  could  be 
raised  here.  Nothing  is  used  as  yet  except  the  wool.  The  boil- 
ing down  of  sheep  has  commenced  in  some  parts ;  but  it  is  always 
an  unnatural  branch  of  industry — a  dreadful  waste  of  animal  life 
for  a  disproportion al  profit,  At  present  the  communication  with 
the  nearest  ports — from  here  to  Melbourne,  and  from  farther  be- 
low to  Adelaide — is  too  expensive ;  and  in  such  a  year  as  this, 
perfectly  impracticable,  as  there  would  be  no  fodder  on  the  road 
for  oxen.  Nothing  but  the  most  urgent  necessity  will  sanction 
so  long  a  journey.  A  communication  by  steam  would  alter  this 
materially ;  for  the  settler  would  then  even  breed  cattle  in  hopes 
of  a  good  profit,  to  salt  and  dry  the  meat ;  and  most  excellent  meat 
they  have  for  the  market.  This  seems  so  much  more  practicable, 
as  there  is  a  perfect  mine  of  salt  through  a  vast  portion  of  the 
country.  On  a  long  stretch  of  the  Murray  there  are  large  salt 
ponds,  with  a  thick  crust  of  salt  on  the  top,  where  the  wagoners 
go  with  shovels  and  bags,  and  load  as  quick  as  they  can  shovel 
the  salt  into  the  drays. 

This  salt  looks  white,  and  the  shepherds — in  fact  all  the  settlers 
on  the  Murray — use  it  to  salt  their  meat ;  but  from  other  quarters 
I  heard  that  the  men  who  told  me  this,  were  living  on  the  Mur- 
ray and  had  runs  there  :  and  that  the  salt  would  not  keep  the 
meat  for  a  long  time ;  experiments  having  been  made,  and  the 
meat  having,  after  a  certain  number  of  months,  become  spoiled. 
Others  denied  the  truth  of  this ;  but  the  salt  is  found  over  such 
a  vast  surface  of  the  country,  that  there  may  be  a  difference  in 
Jhe  quality.  That  which  I  saw,  tasted  to  me  exactly  like  salt 
in  general  use ;  I  could  detect  no  difference 

Should  this  salt  prove  good,  hides  and  sheep-skins  would  form 


MARCH  THROUGH  THE  MURRAY  VALLEY  439 

very  large  articles  of  export ;  and  the  gum  trees  would  supply 
excellent  material  for  smoking  mutton-hams. 

I  question  whether  agriculture  will  ever  flourish  in  this  part 
of  the  country.  The  soil  of  the  bottom  land  seems  well  enough, 
and  no  doubt  would  bring  excellent  crops ;  but  just  when  the 
grain  ripens,  the  river  overflows  its  banks,  arid  sweeps  every  thing 
before  it.  Experiments  have  been  tried,  but  all  with  the  same 
result.  Corn  and  wheat  were  standing  very  well,  when  one 
night's  rise  placed  the  fields  under  water,  and  the  next  cleared 
harvest  and  fences  away.  On  the  shores  of  the  Mississippi  they 
had,  it  is  true,  to  work  against  the  same  difficulties,  and  at  last  to 
build  a  dam,  to  keep  out  the  mighty  stream  ;  but  a  much  wider, 
and  more  fertile  bottom  than  is  found  here,  promised  a  more  cer- 
tain success ;  and  a  rich  soil,  with  cotton  and  sugar  plantations, 
paid  well  the  cost  of  erecting  the  dam  and  keeping  it  in  order. 

But  it  is  nearly  impossible  to  say  what  such  a  new  country  as 
this  is  able  to  do.  A  new  impulse  given  to  an  immigration  to 
the  shore  of  this  Australian  river — as  it  may  be  called,  for  it  is 
the  only  one  Australia  has  to  boast  of — would  call  a  perfectly 
new  population  to  that  part ;  and  if  this  gold  discovery  draws 
more  and  more  emigrants  to  the  antipodes,  I  have  not  the  least 
doubt  a  part  of  them  will  press  toward  the  Murray,  and  the  nav- 
igation of  it  must  follow  as  a  natural  consequence. 

I  now  approached  those  territories  where  the  blacks  are  said 
to  be  particularly  "jolly  ;"  and  meeting  one  day  two  bundlemen 
in  the  road,  they  told  me  the  most  discouraging  tales  of  the  mobs 
they  had  passed  a  little  while  ago.  Though  coming  only  from 
the  other  side  of  the  Murrumbidgee,  they  had  been  met  by  a  mob. 
The  blacks  were  camping  not  far  from  the  road,  and  seeing  the 
two  white  men  approaching  unarmed,  they  sent  out  two  of  their 
number,  as  I  was  told  they  always  do,  with  spears  and  boomer- 
angs, to  ask  the  travelers  for  some  smoke  (tobacco).  The  latter 
had  no  tobacco,  and  told  them  so  ;  but  one  of  the  black  rascals 
laid  down  his  spear,  and,  after  taking  the  blankets  from  the 
shoulders  of  the  two  men,  searched  their  pockets,  where  he  found 
a  few  shillings  in  silver,  and  two  small  pocket  knives  ;  in  short, 
they  were  robbed  of  every  thing  they  had  except  the  clothes  they 
had  on ;  and  the  other  thief  was  standing  by  at  the  time  with 
his  weapons,  grinning  and  laughing.  A  few  days  before  that, 
this  mob  had  taken  from  another  man  his  knife  and  tobacco  ; 


440  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

and  these  men  told  me  they  had  inquired  all  the  way  up  for  one 
of  their  friends,  who  ought  to  have  passed  here  about  six  days 
ago ;  but  nobody  had  seen  him  here,  and  he  could  not  have 
taken  another  route. 

It  will  be  necessary  here  to  say  a  few  words  about  the  native 
weapons,  though  I  shall  give  no  description  of  them,  since  the 
English  reader  is  most  likely  already  acquainted  with  most  of 
them. 

The  tribes  here  are  certainly  the  best  armed  of  all  the  Austra- 
lian blacks  ;  for  they  carry  the  short  spear,  which  they  throw 
with  the  boomerang,  of  which  last  weapon  they  have  two  kinds 
— one  with  a  sharp  bend,  to  come  back  after  the  throw  ;  the 
other,  much  less  curved,  as  a  kind  of  war-boomerang,  to  go  only 
straight  ahead.  The  last  they  can  also  use  in  the  woods,  while 
they  must  have  an  open  place  for  the  other. 

Farther  down  the  Murray,  the  blacks  carry  no  boomerangs, 
only  a  spear,  at  least  seven  or  eight  feet  long,  and  of  course  not 
half  as  dangerous  as  the  short  weapon,  which  they  throw  with 
an  incredible  dexterity  a  distance  of  from  sixty  to  eighty  yards. 

Besides  these,  the  Murrumbidgee  and  neighboring  blacks  carry 
a  short  club  of  a  different  shape.  The  most  common  is  that 
with  only  a  knot  to  it;  but  they  have  also  another  kind — half 
boomerang,  half  club,  which  they  also  throw.  To  ward  off  the 
blows  of  these  weapons,  they  have  a  small  and  long  shield,  with 
a  guarded  hole  cut  in  the  middle,  for  the  hands  to  hold  it.  Nearly 
all  of  them  go  perfectly  naked,  and  many  have  a  thin  cord  tied 
very  tightly  round  their  waist.  I  was  told  by  some  shepherds 
that  they  intended  this  for  a  kind  of  medicine,  to  stop  the  free 
circulation  of  the  blood ;  and  this  seems  in  so  far  probable,  that 
I  have  found  several  other  blacks  who  wore  strings,  tied  in  a  sim- 
ilar way,  round  an  arm  or  a  leg,  also  round  their  heads.  The 
latter  they  told  me,  was  to  prevent  headache. 

The  bundlemen  left  me  finally,  glad,  as  they  said,  to  have 
reached  a  more  civilized  part  of  the  country,  though  they  should 
not  feel  quite  safe  till  they  arrived  at  Albury,  or  at  least  its 
neighborhood. 

On  the  Logan  I  shot  a  black  swan.  I  wrapped  the  skin  in 
my  blanket,  to  take  it  home  with  me. 

The  night  of  the  20th  I  staid  in  a  station,  which  I  reached 
just  at  sundown,  and  started  next  morning  very  early  ;  but  I  felt 


MARCH  THROUGH  THE  MURRAY  VALLEY.     441 

to-day  a  most  singular  swimming  in  the  head,  as  if  I  had  been 
drunk,  though  the  strongest  liquor  I  had  tasted  for  several  weeks 
was  tea.  The  idea  of  being  taken  ill  in  the  midst  of  these  treach- 
erous tribes  so  far  distant  from  a  station,  made  a  cold  perspiration 
break  out  all  over  me.  Still  I  wandered  on,  wondering  at  the 
same  time  at  the  singular  symptoms  I  experienced.  If  I  stopped, 
and  raising  my  gun,  took  aim  at  a  distant  object,  straining  my 
sinews  to  keep  straight  and  steady,  I  did  not  feel  the  least  incon- 
venience, and  could  hit  a  mark  as  well  as  ever.  When  I  should- 
ered my  gun  again,  and  made  five  or  six  steps  forward,  I  felt  the 
weakness  returning.  Through  the  middle  of  the  day  it  left  me 
a  little,  but  toward  evening  it  got  worse  ;  and  looking  out  a  place 
in  the  m alley  bushes — for  I  did  not  dare  to  lay  down  close  to  the 
river,  on  account  of  the  blacks — I  lit  a  small  fire,  and  laid  down 
beside  it. 

The  next  morning  I  felt  a  great  deal  better,  but  rather  weak 
and  extraordinary  hungry ;  my  stomach  telling  me  plainly  that 
it  preferred  a  good  piece  of  meat  to  pig's-face  and  Murray  water 
that  had  satisfied  it  the  preceding  day.  Fortunately,  I  killed 
that  morning  a  walloby — a  small  kind  of  kangaroo — and  stopped 
at  the  place  where  I  had  shot  it,  for  I  really  was  not  able  to 
travel  that  day  ;  still  I  felt  not  in  the  least  uneasy  about  my  ap- 
petite, which  proved  plainly  enough  that  I  had  seen  the  worst  of 
the  malady. 

Next  morning  nothing  remained  but  a  weakness  in  rny  limbs, 
which  I  knew  would  not  last  long. 

By  entering  the  malley  bushes  I  had  lost  the  track  which  I 
had  followed  to  this  time  ;  but  taking  a  direction  that,  running 
with  the  river,  would  restore  me  to  it  again  at  the  next  bend,  I 
thought  I  could  see  the  high  gum  timber  on  one  of  the  malley 
hills ;  I  therefore  traveled  on,  reaching  the  river  that  afternoon, 
and  just  opposite  I  saw  on  the  other  side  crowning  a  steep  and 
pine  wooded  sand  hill,  a  small  hut,  out  of  which  the  smoke  curled 
up  beautifully  into  the  air.  Close  by  this  hut  there  were  about 
ten  or  fifteen  blacks.  They  had  two  of  their  bark  canoes  in  the 
water,  and  seeing  me — for  they  know  they  can  always  get  a  piece 
of  tobacco  from  a  white  man — they  came  over  quickly,  to  take 
me  to  the  other  side.  That  night  I  stopped  with  the  stock-keeper, 
who  lived  in  this  hut,  and  received  me  as  hospitably  as  if  I  had 
been  his  brother.  Dampor  and  beef,  and  a  good  cup  of  tea,  with 

T* 


442  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD, 

plenty  of  sugar,  the  best  they  have,  did  a  great  deal  toward  my 
perfect  recovery.  That  night  I  slept  gloriously,  under  a  warm 
opossum-rug,  while  the  rain  poured  down  upon  the  roof  for  at 
least  six  hours. 

The  29th  of  May,  with  fine  weather  again,  I  wandered  along 
in  a  tolerably  beaten  path  ;  there  were  twenty  odd  miles  to  an- 
other station,  which  was  somewhere  in  the  bush,  off  from  the 
road  in  some  bend  of  the  river,  where  I  was  not  likely  to  find  it, 
as  I  was  told.  Not  far  from  the  mouth  of  the  Murrumbidgee 
here,  which  emptied  itself  on  the  other  side  of  the  river  into  the 
Murray,  there  were  several  jolly  mobs  camped  ;  and  the  shep- 
herds on  the  road  had  warned  rne  not  to  have  any  thing  to  do 
with  them,  and  to  keep  them  at  arm's  length.  • 

I  walked  briskly  on,  keeping  a  good  look-out.  It  was  late  in 
the  afternoon,  and  I  had  not  met  one  black,  not  even  a  fresh 
track.  Just  as  I  had  made  up  my  mind  that  they  were  on  the 
other  side  of  the  river,  I  suddenly  observed  something  move  in 
the  bushes  before  me  ;  and  a  few  seconds  afterward  a  dark  body 
slipped  away  from  out  of  a  little  thicket  of  lignum  into  the  tea- 
tree  shrub  on  the  other  side.  Going  about  thirty  or  forty  steps 
farther  on,  where  I  reached  a  little  higher  spot  on  the  road,  as  I 
had  reason  to  think  that  I  was  watched  from  one  side  or  the 
other,  I  stopped,  cocked  my  gun  twice,  to  let  the  noise  of  the 
springs  be  heard,  and  put  on  new  caps,  partly  for  fear  I  should 
want  them,  and  partly  to  let  any  hidden  rascal  see  that  I  was 
ready  for  him.  Then  leaving  the  path  which  led  through  thick 
scrub,  to  the  spot  where  I  had  seen  the  black. — a  most  unfavor- 
able place  for  making  a  good  defense — I  turned  to  the  right  to- 
ward a  low  and  open  sandy  hill,  with  thin  shrub,  where  an  ene- 
my would  have  found  it  difficult  to  avoid  the  effects  of  a  gun  ; 
while  I  gained  at  the  same  time,  a  fair  prospect  of  the  ground 
behind. 

But  here  I  came,  as  it  seemed,  from  out  of  the  frying-pan  into 
the  fire  ;  for  I  had  hardly  reached  the  top,  when  I  found  myself 
before  a  whole  mob  of  blacks,  who  had  most  certainly  been 
watching  me,  for  only  a  portion  of  them  were  looking  at  me, 
while  the  rest  were  carrying  on  a  very  loud  and  lively  conversa- 
tion, arguing  some  point,  which  I  could  not  have  a  doubt  con- 
cerned me,  more  than  was  agreeable.  They  were  most  certain- 
ly bound  upon  some  war  party,  for  they  were  painted  with  red 


MARCH  THROUGH  THE  MURRAY  VALLEY.     443 

and  white  clay  and  armed  to  the  teeth.  Each  of  the  men  car- 
ried, at  least,  two  boomerangs ;  some  had  four,  besides  three  or 
four  small  spears  ;  and  on  the  wrist  of  the  right  hand  hung  the 
little  war-club — and  a  long  small  shield  was  thrown  over  the 
back.  They  had  also  a  few  gins,  or  women,  with  them,  who 
carried  immense  bundles  ;  and  though  I  felt  certain  that  this 
party  had  never  been  undertaken  to  wage  war  against  the 
whites,  or  they  would  have  attacked  me  without  much  ado  long 
ago  ;  I  did  not  feel  as  sure  that  they  would,  at  the  very  moment 
of  going  to  war,  let  an  opportunity  slip  for  possessing  themselves 
of  a  gun,  with  powder  and  lead,  which  a  great  many  of  them 
knew  very  well  how  to  use. 

But  there  was,  at  any  rate,  some  party  among  them  against 
hostilities  with  the  whites  ;  or  they  might  have  feared  treachery 
among  themselves.  The  younger  population,  however,  were  riot 
likely  to  care  much  for  the  revenge  of  the  whites,  feeling  sure  of 
being  able  to  take  to  the  bush,  and  be  out  of  reach  of  retaliation. 

Two  of  these  parted  from  the  rest ;  and  while  watching  them, 
I  accidentally  turned  my  head  over  my  shoulder,  and  noticed 
another  native  gliding  his  dark  body  over  the  path,  and  disap- 
pearing in  the  thick  bushes  behind. 

The  case  grew  rather  too  exciting  to  be  pleasant ;  and  I  be- 
gan to  think  that  should  I  have  to  fight  my  way  through  them, 
or  find  myself  staked  down  somewhere  in  the  river  in  the  course 
of  the  evening — Billy-the-Bull  fashion.  I  did  not  know  wheth- 
er they  only  wanted  my  gun,  or  my  "  butter  ;"  but  I  was  determ- 
ined they  should  have  neither.  To  avoid  walking  right  up  to 
them,  I  turned  to  the  left  again  to  reach  the  path,  wondering  at 
the  same  time  what  could  have  become  of  the  two  blacks,  and 
why  some  of  the  rascals  slipped  through  the  bushes  and  hid, 
while  the  rest  collected  in  such  a  large  mob.  But  I  had  not 
made  more  than  about  two  hundred  steps,  when  I  saw  the  two 
young  fellows  who  had  left  their  mob  a  little  while  ago,  and  had 
seemed  uncertain  which  way  to  turn,  pass  over  now  to  where 
they  must  meet  me  in  the  path,  and  stopping,  they  seemed  to  wait 
for  my  coming,  without,  however,  showing  any  hostility.  By 
leaving  the  hill  I  had  almost  lost  sight  of  the  mob ;  but 
when  I  turned  my  head  that  way  again,  I  saw  that  they  had 
collected  on  the  top,  as  if  to  see  the  sport — any  how  to  watch 
the  success  of  their  embassadors. 


444  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

I  did  not  feel  quite  easy  at  these  preparations ;  but  having 
been  too  often  with  Indians,  I  knew  very  well  that  I  should  be 
a  lost  man  if  I  showed  any  fear  ;  therefore,  taking  down  my  gun 
quietly,  cocking  both  barrels,  and  letting  it  rest  in  the  bend  of 
the  left  arm  ready  for  use,  I  walked  leisurely  up  to  the  two  ras- 
cals waiting  for  me. 

"  You  smoke  ?"  said  one  of  them  (smoke  meaning  tobacco), 
when  I  was  close  to  them,  and  thinking  of  course  I  would  stop 
where  they  were. 

"No!"  I  answered  quietly,  arid  without  altering  my  step,  only 
turning  a  little  to  the  right,  to  have  my  knife  free  ;  taking  care 
at  the  same  time  to  keep  on  their  side,  not  to  turn  my  back  en- 
tirely upon  them;  and  passed  on.  A  few  seconds,  seeming 
rather  to  be  taken  aback,  they  stopped  and  let  me  go  on — may- 
be fifty  yards  ;  but  after  a  few  words  quickly  exchanged  they 
followed,  and  I  was  obliged  to  turn  toward  them. 

"You  smoke?"  repeated  the  one  again,  but  no  longer  with  a 
friendly  sound;  and  to  my  short  and  second  "No,"  he  rolled  the 
white  of  his  eyes  toward  me,  and  cried  in  an  angry  tone:  "that 
dam  gammon  you  smoke !"  Gammon  being,  in  their  way  of 
speaking  English,  their  expression  for  lying,  cheating,  or  teazing. 

I  had,  in  fact,  tobacco  with  me,  but  did  not  want  to  show  it, 
for  fear  of  making  them  more  greedy  ;  but  now,  rather  angry  at 
their  daring,  I  determined  not  to  show  the  white  feather ;  so, 
pulling  a  piece  of  tobacco  out  of  my  pocket,  I  held  it  up,  and  told 
the  black  he  should  have  that,  if  he'd  give  me  one  of  his  boome- 
rangs for  it.  The  effect  of  this  proposition  upon  the  two  was 
really  ludicrous ;  first  they  looked  at  me,  then  at  one  another, 
and  at  last  the  speaker,  jumping  with  a  perfect  burst  of  delight, 
cried  :  "Well,  well!  I  give  you  boomerang,"  and  running  a  few 
steps  back,  whirled  the  weapon  round  his  head  as  if  going  to 
throw  it  at  me  ;  but  he  did  not  throw. 

Perhaps  the  whole  was  only  intended  for  a  joke  ;  but  it  show- 
ed me  how  differently  these  fellows  behaved  when  they  were 
going  on  a  war  party,  having  a  single  white  man  between  them, 
half  as  they  might  have  thought,  at  their  mercy,  to  when  they 
came  into  a  settlement  of  the  whites,  begging,  and  with  every 
assurance  of  good  fellowship. 

But  whatever  he  meant,  I  had  only  one  way  to  act ;  and  as 
quickly  as  he  made  any  motion  toward  hostilities,  I  raised  my  gun, 


MARCH  THROUGH  THE  HURRAY  VALLEY.  445 

and  making  the  spring  of  the  lock  sound,  observed  how  rapidly 
both  the  blacks  left  off  playing  and  grasped  their  spears.  They 
fear  fire-arms,  particularly  double-barreled  pieces,  and  pistols, 
and  long  knives  still  more  ;  therefore,  a  well-armed  white  man 
has  always  a  great  advantage  over  even  a  mob  of  them,  if  he 
only  knows  how  to  keep  it.  The  two  looked  at  me — they  knew 
well  enough  that  war  or  peace  depended  upon  themselves — they 
had  to  give  the  first  blow.  Suddenly  a  loud  cry  broke  out  from 
the  hill ;  I  had  enough  to  do  to  watch  the  two  nearest  me,  though 
I  felt  convinced  that  the  cry  was  a  sign  of  attack.  There  I  was 
mistaken,  for  my  opponents  turned  away  from  me  and  left  me  ; 
and  looking  round  toward  the  hill,  I  saw  three  of  the  blacks  raise 
their  spears  and  run  down  the  slope  in  the  direction  I  had  come. 
Something  was  going  on  far  more  interesting  to  the  whole  tribe 
than  my  own  person.  I  saw  how  they  all  turned  the  other  way 
to  look  ;  and  taking  advantage  of  the  movement,  and  not  in  the 
least  curious  to  see  what  was  the  matter,  I  turned  on  my  heel 
and  followed  my  path — no  further  molested  by  any  of  the  mob. 

That  evening,  more  by  accident  than  any  thing  else,  I  reached 
the  next  station.  There  I  told  the  man  what  I  had  witnessed, 
and  how  singularly  the  blacks  had  behaved,  and  he  gave  me  the 
following  account. 

These  blacks  belong  to  the  Murrumbidgee  tribe.  A  short  time 
ago,  one  of  the  Swanhill  blacks  had  come  over  to  the  Murrum- 
bidgee, and,  while  alone,  had  met  two  of  the  other  tribe,  one  of 
whom  carried  a  gun,  and  the  other  a  shield,  war-club,  and 
spears.  They  asked  him  whence  he  came,  and  what  was  his 
name  ;  which  having  learned,  they  told  him  to  come  with  them 
to  their  camp.  He  did  not  like  to  go  before  them,  but  the  Mur- 
rumbidgee black  gave  him  his  own  loaded  gun  to  carry,  and  he 
walked  on.  Reaching  a  suitable  place,  the  black  who  owned 
the  gun,  took  the  club  from  the  other,  and  giving  the  stranger  a 
blow  on  the  head,  knocked  him  down,  then  finished  him  with 
two  or  three  more  blows.  After  cutting  him  up,  they  took  out 
his  "butter,"  and  covered  him  with  bushes.  But  the  tribe  of 
the  murdered  man  hearing  of  this  deed,  declared  their  intention 
to  have  an  exterminating  revenge  ;  and  large  mobs  of  the  Mur- 
rumbidgee were  now  moving  forward  to  protect  their  friends, 
or,  if  necessary,  to  give  the  enemy  battle  upon  his  own  hunting- 
ground. 


446  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

Their  behavior  toward  me,  the  old  shepherd  thought  not  at  all 
strange.  There  was  a  possibility  that  the  black,  or  the  two 
blacks  I  had  first  seen,  were  spies  of  another  tribe ;  and  the 
Murmmbidgee  blacks  thought  a  great  deal  more  of  getting  one 
of  them  into  their  power,  than  of  molesting  me — white  men 
having  brought  them  into  trouble  often  enough.  But  it  might 
have  been  also  one  of  their  own  mob,  and  they  had  only  wanted 
some  excuse  to  get  away  from  me,  seeing  that  they  could  get 
nothing  from  me  without  force,  and  with  the  risk  of  being  shot. 

When  I  asked  him  how  he  could  live  here  with  only  a  kut 
keeper,  in  the  very  midst  of  those  blacks,  he  laughed  and  told 
me  the  blacks  took  very  good  care  not  to  kill  a  white  man,  whom 
they  knew  would  be  missed  directly  ;  and  would  set  all  the  police 
and  other  whites  after  them.  Their  game  was  only  some  poor 
bundleman  who,  as  they  knew  very  well,  would  not  be  missed 
for  a  month,  if  at  all ;  by  which  time  they  had  little  or  nothing 
to  fear.  They  also  do  not  like  to  attack  a  white  man  in  the 
presence  of  the  whole  mob,  there  being  too  many  witnesses,  and 
too  many  sharers  in  what  little  they  get  by  it.  Murders  are 
therefore  committed  by  two,  or  at  the  utmost  three  of  them,  or 
by  a  single  native  taking  advantage  of  a  careless  traveler. 

I  had  now  entered  that  part  of  the  country  where  a  fabulous 
animal,  the  bunyip,  had  been  seen.  It  was  said  to  live  in  the 
bed  of  the  Murray,  and  in  the  neighboring  lakes,  I  saw  a  draw- 
ing in  Sydney,  which  represente4  it  as  a  monster  in  the  shape 
of  a  horse,  with  teeth  like  a  tiger,  or  some  other  beast  of  prey  of 
that  kind,  and  a  long  flowing  mane ;  the  claws  of  the  fore  feet 
long  and  sharp.  The  hinder  parts  no  one  had  seen  as  yet,  so  as 
to  be  able  to  give  a  description  of  them ;  and  it  was  even  un- 
known if  he  sported  a  tail. 

I  have  crawled  down  the  steep  banks  of  the  Murray  in  more 
than  a  hundred  different  places,  and  searched  the  sand-bars  or 
mud-banks  of  the  stream,  wherever  there  was  a  place  convenient 
for  his  exit  from  the  river,  if  such  a  monster  existed  in  it.  The 
blacks,  found  camping  at  every  hut  in  hopes  of  getting  tobacco 
and  bread,  for  carrying  wood  and  water,  call  it  "devil-devil;"  but 
to  my  inquiries  they  answered  that  it  always  lived  in  the  lakes, 
and  there  I  should  find  it  at  night.  Once  a  black  showed  me  a 
place  in  the  Murray,  making  a  sharp  bend,  assuring  me  that 
devil-devil  was  there  ;  for  a  little  while  ago  it  had  pulled  in  one 


MARCH  THROUGH  THE  MURRAY  VALLEY.     447 

of  his  brothers,  who  wanted  to  cross  over  in  a  bark  canoe.  I  could 
discover  no  signs  of  such  an  animal,  though  I  hoped  to  find  the 
track  of  it  around  the  lakes,  which  had  never  been  so  low  as 
at  present ;  and  if  such  a  monster  lived  in  them,  it  must  leave 
traces  of  its  passage  on  the  bank. 

I  had  to  pass  several  mobs  of  blacks  before  I  could  reach  the 
Darling ;  but  it  would  fill  a  volume  to  relate  all  the  dodges  I  had 
recourse  to,  to  get  round  the  mobs,  or  if  seen,  to  keep  the  fellows 
at  proper  distance.  Once  I  had  to  take  one  of  their  bark  canoes 
to  pass  a  large  mob,  holding  a  wild  corrobery  on  the  banks  of  the 
Murray,  while  the  dogs  were  out  in  the  woods  chasing  opossums ; 
and  I  did  not  dare  to  cross  their  track.  I  was  obliged  to  glide  after- 
ward down  the  stream  in  the  dark,  under  the  very  bank  upon 
which  they  were  dancing. 

I  also  got  lost  once — that  is,  I  had  left  or  lost  the  track  in  the 
dark,  and  traveling  on  through  the  malley  bushes,  up  and  down 
hill,  was  obliged  at  last  to  take  a  straight  cut  to  the  river ;  and 
meeting  on  my  route  some  camp-fires  of  the  blacks,  had  to  lay  out 
in  a  bitter  cold  night,  without  a  fire,  in  the  bush.  These  were 
the  natural  perils  of  a  bush  life,  and  I  never  complained  of  them. 
There  is  a  singular  charm  in  a  little  danger  in  traveling;  it  keeps 
up  a  man's  spirits,  and  makes  his  time  pass  quickly,  especially  in 
a  country  where  the  scenery  is  not  likely  to  attract  his  attention. 
I  should  not  like  to  travel  without  this  sense  of  danger ;  it  is  ex- 
actly the  same  feeling  which  makes  hunting  so  attractive — the 
earnest  watching  here  for  a  hidden  enemy,  there  for  the  expected 
game,  makes  the  hours  pass  with  the  speed  of  minutes.  The 
nights  are  disagreeable.  If  one  could  always  lay  down  one's 
head  after  dark  by  a  good  fire,  eat  one's  supper  if  one  has  it,  or 
do  without  it  if  not,  I  should  not  mind  living  over  this  time  again ; 
but  having  traveled  through  the  day  with  a  spirit  irritated  by  a 
danger  you  can  not  see,  and  therefore  know  not  how  to  avoid,  your 
limbs  tired,  your  eyes  heavy  with  the  sleep  they  sought  in  vain  the 
previous  night,  hopelessly  striving  to  sleep  with  one  eye,  and  watch 
with  the  other  ;  to  have  to  kindle  a  fire,  cook  your  scanty  meal — 
maybe  an  old,  tough,  dry  cockatoo — always  the  cocked  gun  in  your 
hand,  or  ready  to  grasp  ;  then  to  leave  the  warm  flame,  lay  down 
half  a  mile  from  it,  in  the  dark  and  cold  bush,  in  the  hope  of 
escaping  having  your  brains  knocked  out  before  you  awake  in 
the  morning,  by  the  prowling  and  cowardly  enemy — forms  a 


448  JOURNEY  HOUND  THE  WO&LD. 

state  of  existence  that  I  must  acknowledge  is  not  so  very  agree- 
able. 

In  this  way,  traveling  through  the  day,  and  bushing  it  through 
the  night,  if  I  could  not  reach  a  station,  I  crossed  the  Darling,  a 
tolerable  wide  river,  but  only  a  chain  of  water-holes  in  summer, 
and  now  fed  by  the  rising  Murray. 

At  the  Darling  there  is  a  public-house,  where  I  staid  all  night, 
and  had  supper,  bed,  and  breakfast ;  but  even  here,  the  landlord 
would  not  take  any  thing.  I  was  perfectly  welcome,  he  said, 
and  he  did  not  want  to  be  less  hospitable  than  the  poor  shepherds 
in  the  bush.  And  this  was  not  the  only  public-house  where 
they  refused  to  take  money,  though  I  had  to  pay  at  some.  I 
wondered  at  first  how  they  could  exist,  knowing  that  they  culti- 
vated nothing,  but  had  to  bring  up  every  pound  of  flour,  tea,  or 
sugar,  from  Melbourne  or  Adelaide  by  drags,  and  pay  enormous 
sums  for  freight,  if  they  did  not  send  their  wool  to  market  them- 
selves (the  returning  carts  almost  always  bringing  provisions). 
They  told  me  afterward  that  their  public-houses  were  for  the 
cattle-droves  that  took  the  land  route  to  Adelaide  from  the 
eastern  states,  or  for  those  neighbors  and  passers-by,  who  liked  a 
dram  ;  eating  and  drinking  (that  is  tea)  they  did  not  count  upon ; 
a  man  must  have  that,  and  they  were  not  going  to  take  advant- 
age of  a  poor  devil  who  had  to  carry  his  bundle  through  the 
world  ;  but  if  a  gentleman  traveled  on  horseback,  it  was  an- 
other thing. 

There  are  exceptions  to  this  really  unbounded  hospitality  ;  and 
they  are  pointed  out  to  the  traveler  by  the  neighbors,  as  men  of  a 
contemptible  character ;  but  these  are  really  very  few.  I  was 
only  once  refused  a  night's  lodging,  in  spite  of  my  offering  the 
full  amount  in  money,  by  an  old  woman,  the  wife  of  a  shepherd, 
who  was  absent  from  home  with  his  sheep,  because  she  had 
hardly  enough  flour  in  the  house,  and  could  not  bear  to  see  a 
man  leave  her  roof  hungry ;  therefore  she  preferred  giving  me  a 
refusal.  But  I  did  not  blame  her  for  it ;  and  she  rejected  pay- 
ment, because,  she  said,  she  had  never  taken  money  from  a  tra- 
veler, and  never  would  as  long  as  she  lived.  I  was,  therefore, 
obliged  to  bush  it,  and  it  rained  nearly  all  night. 

About  thirty  miles  below  the  Darling,  the  character  of  the 
river-banks  changes  entirely.  The  shores  had  hitherto  been  low 
— a  continuation  of  flat  box- wood  and  gum-bottoms,  with  num- 


MARCH  THROUGH  THE  MURRAY  VALLEY.  449 

beiiess  lagoons  and  billibongs,  rising  gradually  to  a  higher  and 
sandy  soil,  on  which  the  malley  bushes  commenced,  the  inter- 
vening lands  being  filled  with  salt-bush,  and  the  other,  never- 
changing  vegetation.  I  have  traveled  through  many  a  country, 
but  had  really  never  seen  scenery  more  monotonous  than  this 
Murray  River  down  to  this  place.  From  here,  however,  the  flat 
shore  runs  out  suddenly  in  high  limestone  cliffs,  of  a  peculiar 
shape,  forming  a  steep  and  abrupt  bank  of  the  river,  which  had 
a  valley  here,  varying  from  one  to  two  miles  in  width,  the  river 
runs  in  a  zig-zag,  sometimes  washing  close  under  the  right  hand 
shore,  and  leaving  the  bottom  on  the  left  side  ;  sometimes  cross- 
ing over  to  that  side,  forming  a  large  and  wide  flat  of  box  and 
gum-timber  on  the  right,  which  runs  out  still  farther  below,  like 
a  swan-hill,  into  long  and  thick  fields  of  reeds  and  rushes.  In 
July,  August,  or  September,  all  this  low  land  is  a  perfect  sea, 
the  Murray  overflowing  its  banks  regularly  every  year.  The  soil 
is  here,  as  it  is  farther  up,  a  gray,  heavy  loam,  which  sticks  to 
the  feet  after  the  slightest  rain  with  a  pertinacity  scarcely  de- 
scribable.  I  had  sometimes  for  days  to  carry  rny  heavy  knife  un- 
sheathed in  my  hand,  to  free  my  heels  from  the  lumps  that  stuck 
to  them,  growing  longer  and  heavier  at  every  step.  Scarcely 
is  it  dry,  when  it  forms  a  crust,  about  half  an  inch  thick,  which 
cracks  open  after  the  rain  has  ceased  a  few  hours,  giving  the 
soil  a  hard  and  dry  appearance,  corresponding  with  the  dull  and 
monotonous-looking  gum  trees 

These  cliffs,  therefore  change  the  scenery  entirely.  There  is  a 
valley  below,  where  the  stream  now  no  longer  winding  as  before, 
but  generally  spreading  into  a  long  and  broad  sheet,  deep  enough 
to  float  the  largest  man-of-war ;  while  high  on  the  very  edge  of 
the  limestone  cliffs,  of  which  huge  pieces  are  sometimes  broken 
off  and  thrown  in  the  dale  below,  the  malley  bushes,  with  their 
pleasant  foliage,  commence  throwing  their  shade  upon  the  gums 
beneath  them. 

A  new  kind  of  salt-bush  commences  here  ;  the  leaves,  little 
tiny  things,  are  thick  and  juicy,  and  crusted  as  if  with  the  sugar- 
ed anise  seed  you  buy  at  the  confectioners.  There  is  also  an- 
other salt-bush  with  deep  green  leaves  scattered  through  it ; 
the  two  different  colors  contrast  beautifully. 

A  fine  lagoon  I  saw  that  day ;  far  down  below  the  cliff,  on  the 
edge  of  which  I  was  standing,  I  obtained  a  view  over  the  low  lands. 


450  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

Below  me  the  river  had  formed  in  a  large  bend  a  kind  of  lake  or 
pond,  perfectly  white  at  this  time,  with  innumerable  swarms  of 
cockatoos ;  large  and  single  gum  trees  were  standing  scattered 
around  its  borders,  and  here  and  there,  through  the  water,  and 
sometimes  right  in  the  midst  of  some  noisy  flock  of  cockatoos, 
were  standing  long-legged  cranes,  looking  wistfully  down  into 
the  clear  element  for  their  "  daily  bread."  The  native  compan- 
ion, a  most  beautiful  bird  of  the  same  species,  but  attaining  a 
height  of  upward  of  four  feet,  was  among  them,  walking  about 
with  the  utmost  gravity,  his  neck  and  head  thrown  back,  and 
the  shape  of  his  body  in  that  attitude  looking  for  all  the  world 
like  a  gentleman  in  easy  circumstances  taking  an  afternoon's 
walk,  with  his  hands  behind  his  back.  I  laid  down  a  little,  to 
have  a  fair  look  at  the  birds  and  the  open  country  around  them 
and  feeling  particularly  interested  in  these  native  companions. 
I  had  been  watching  the  largest  one  some  minutes,  when  it 
raised  up  its  head,  and  looked  over  to  the  nearest  gum  tree ;  the 
next  moment  it  lay  fluttering  on  the  ground.  While  I  rose  in 
mute  astonishment,  the  figure  of  a  black  appeared  round  the  tree ; 
grasping  his  spoil  by  the  neck,  and  throwing  it  over  his  shoulder, 
disappeared  amidst  the  deafening  cries  of  the  cockatoos,  circling 
round  the  disturber  of  their  peace. 

On  the  6th  of  June  I  reached  Victoria  Lake.  I  had  heard  a 
great  description  of  the  beauty  of  this  water,  but  was  grievously 
disappointed.  The  whole  day  I  had  to  travel  through  a  flat  and 
low  country,  bearing  hardly  any  thing  but  salt-bush ;  with  no 
sign  of  life,  except  here  and  there  a  noisy  flock  of  black  or  white 
cockatoos,  a  few  emus  running  with  lightning  speed  through  the 
plain,  or  an  old  kangaroo,  sitting  under  a  bushy  tea-tree,  in  the 
warm  sun,  and  taking  to  his  heels  directly  I  made  my  appear- 
ance, in  long  and  slow  bounds.  The  lake,  when  I  reached 
it,  was,  after  the  long  drought,  nothing  better  than  a  large 
water-pool,  with  a  flat  mud-bank  running  round  it  for  miles. 
I  reached  it  in  the  dark,  and  there  were  several  fires  burn- 
ing around  it,  the  signs  of  so  many  camped  blacks,  who  had 
come  to  fish,  or  were  living  here.  So  I  thought  I  might  risk 
kindling  my  fire  among  them,  not  in  the  bush,  but  on  the  bank, 
as  they  had  done — they  might  take  me  to  be  one  of  themselves  ; 
and  knowing  that  they  do  not  like  traveling  in  the  dark,  especially 
if  there  is  no  moon,  I  had  not  much  to  fear  ;  and  I  slept  unmo- 


MARCH  THROUGH  THE  MURRAY  VALLEY.     451 

lested  the  whole  night.  It  is  said  that  the  blacks  do  not  travel 
in  the  night  at  all ;  this  may  be  true  with  most  of  them,  but  fur- 
ther up  the  river,  and  even  here,  I  knew  of  several  cases  where  they 
did  travel,  in  spite  of  night  and  its  ghosts.  They  seemed  friendly 
in  this  place.  Next  morning,  after  daybreak,  while  I  was  roast- 
ing a  wild  duck  I  had  shot,  three  of  them  came  with  their  spears 
round  the  edge  of  the  mud  where  I  lay,  and  appeared  very  much 
astonished  to  see  a  white  man  quite  by  himself  camped  among 
them.  They  showed  me  also,  in  the  distance,  the  hut  of  a  white 
shepherd  ;  but  being  out  of  my  route,  I  did  not  want  to  approach 
it  that  morning.  So  one  of  them,  who  spoke  a  little  broken 
English,  offered  to  go  with  me  to  the  banks  of  the  Murray,  sev- 
eral miles  off,  where  there  was  another  station  of  white  persons. 
I,  however,  did  not  want  to  leave  the  lake,  but  gave  him  a 
large  piece  of  tobacco  and  some  fish-hooks,  which  made  him 
perfectly  happy.  I  told  him  I  wanted  to  hear  something  of  the 
devil-devil,  and  wished  to  see  if  there  were  any  traces  of  him 
along  the  borders  of  the  lake. 

The  devil-devil  seemed  to  be  a  very  particular  acquaintance 
of  his — he  knew  all  about  it,  and  assured  me  it  was  living  here 
in  the  lake  as  well  as  in  the  neighboring  gullies  and  river  bends ; 
but  he  never  had  seen  it  himself,  and  only  said  it  had  once  killed 
a  member  of  his  family.  I  asked  him  if  it  devoured  its  victims, 
but  he  said  no.  I  now  tried  to  find  out  its  haunts  and  what  it 
fed  upon,  but  he  evidently  did  not  know  much  about  it,  for  he 
only  shook  his  head  mysteriously  and  looked  rather  anxiously 
over  his  shoulder,  as  if  going  to  say  "better  don't  mention  it." 

I  proceeded  round  a  great  part  of  the  lake,  principally  that 
part  opposite  the  camps  and  the  hut,  nearest  to  the  uninhabited 
wilderness,  where  it  was  connected  with  a  very  large  and  now 
half-dry  lagoon,  called  the  Rufus,  leading,  as  it  seemed,  toward 
the  Murray.  Sir  Bunyip,  therefore,  could  not  have  selected  a 
better  place  on  the  whole  shore  of  the  lakes  or  rivers  throughout 
the  entire  wilds  of  the  interior ;  and  the  black  assured  me  it  was 
the  monster's  favorite  spot ;  yet  I  could  not  see  nor  discover  the 
slightest  trace  of  any  thing  but  the  wild  dog,  the  kangaroo,  and 
emu,  though  the  mud  was  soft  enough  to  take  the  print  of  the 
foot  of  a  kangaroo  or  wild  dog,  which  it  had  preserved  most  cer- 
tainly for  a  very  long  time.  I  mentioned  this,  therefore,  to  the 
black,  and  assured  him  I  did  not  believe  there  was  any  devil- 


452  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

devil  living  here  now,  for  it  must  have  left  at  any  rate  a  sign 
upon  these  banks ;  but  he  shook  his  head  at  such  an  idea  very 
earnestly,  remarking:  "Devil-devil  no  track;  butchery  jabon 
devil-devil,  but  no  track ;"  meaning,  "  Cevil-devil,  though  very 
large — butchery  jabon — thinks  it  much  below  him  to  leave  a 
sign  of  his  having  been  any  where." 

I  ought  to  say  here  a  few  words  at  least  about  the  English  of 
these  blacks.  It  is  the  most  barbarous  stuff  I  have  ever  heard 
in  my  life  spoken  by  any  wild  nation.  The  English  are,  in  fact, 
the  most  singular  people  in  the  world  in  their  treatment  of  for- 
eign languages.  They  travel  through  the  whole  known  and  un- 
known world  without  even  thinking  it  necessary — with  excep- 
tions, of  course — to  learn  any  language  but  their  own.  Trusting 
to  fate,  and,  where  they  can  get  him,  to  a  man  they  hire  to  run 
about  with  them,  they  mingle  with  every  nation,  whatever  lan- 
guage may  be  spoken,  observe  the  scenery,  notice  the  inhabit- 
ants, and  for  the  rest,  trust  to  "  Murray's  Hand-Book"  and  their 
interpreter.  It  is  nearly  the  same  thing  with  those  who  settle  in 
another  country ;  they  stick  to  their  mother  tongue,  disdaining 
any  other ;  in  the  course  of  years,  perhaps,  they  contrive  to  catch 
a  few  phrases  of  their  neighbors. 

It  is  the  same  thing  here  in  the  bush.  Though  I  do  not  blame 
the  English  for  not  troubling  themselves  with  the  barbarous  lingo 
of  these  tribes,  I  am  surprised  at  their  learning  so  little  of  a  peo- 
ple with  whom  they  are  in  constant  contact,  while  the  latter  are 
obliged  to  learn  English,  if  they  want  any  conversation  at  all. 
The  settlers  have  formed  for  themselves  a  most  extraordinary  lan- 
guage, which  with  certain  modifications,  answers  with  all  the 
tribes.  A  few  words,  about  three  or  four,  the  blacks  have  per- 
suaded their  English  masters  to  accept ;  for  example,  "  butchery," 
very;  "jabon,"  (spoken  cabon),  great;  "  charyman,"  horse; 
"bale,"  no;  the  others  they  have  formed  after  objects  brought 
to  them  by  the  strangers.  White  they  call  "  flour-bag ;"  to  see 
"make  a  light;"  living  any  where,  "sit  down;"  appearing,  or 
coming,  "jump  up,"  &c.  The  reader  may  think  what  a  lan- 
guage they  compose  in  this  way ;  and  the  English,  who  live 
among  them,  instead  of  teaching  them  the  proper  words  for  such 
objects,  when  conversing  with  them  talk  the  same  nonsense,  per- 
suading themselves,  apparently,  that  they  are  using  another  lan- 
guage— and  another  language  it  is  in  fact. 


MARCH  THROUGH  THE  MURRAY  VALLEY.     453 

Walking  along  with  my  black  he  related  to  me — seeing,  I 
think,  that  I  liked  to  hear  some  of  those  stories — in  his  horrible 
English,  how  devil-devil  had  attacked  a  woman,  not  long  ago, 
and  had  taken  away  from  her  her  butter,  though  there  had  not 
been  the  least  outward  sign  of  a  wound ;  and  the  poor  woman 
died  in  "  twice  sleeping" — two  nights.  And  then  how  it  liked 
to  slip  on  the  sleepers  in  the  night — if  the  fire  did  not  burn  bright 
— and  blow  upon  them  its  poisonous  breath,  making  them  blind, 
or  stealing  away  the  flesh  from  under  their  skin,  that  their  arms 
and  legs  might  wither  away. 

Many  other  things  he  related  to  me  walking  along  the  borders 
of  the  lake,  with  his  light  and  elastic  step,  his  dark  and  restless 
eyes  wandering  over  the  ground ;  but  while  I  listened  to  these 
tales  of  a  monster  I  had  longed  to  hear  something  about,  I  was 
satisfied  that  it  existed  only  in  the  imagination  of  these  savages, 
since  one  of  them,  living  close  to  the  animal's  supposed  haunts, 
confounded  it  with  the  Marralye  of  the  more  southern  tribes — a 
monstrous  black  man,  who  slips  about  at  night  watching  for 
places  where  the  fires  have  burnt  down,  doing  there  exactly  the 
things  devil-devil  was  said  to  do  here.  The  bunyip  vanished 
into  air,  like  the  blue  smoke  of  yonder  camp  of  shell-diggers  on 
the  flat  shore,  and  my  pursuit  of  it  was  over. 

This  night  I  slept  at  a  station,  with  all  the  comforts  of  civilized 
life — that  is,  with  mutton-chops,  damper,  tea  and  sugar,  and  a 
roof  over  my  head.  Close  to  the  house  a  small  mob  of  blacks 
camped,  and  to  please  them  I  colored  all  their  noses  with  some 
vermilion  I  had  with  me,  producing  a  most  beautiful  effect  upon 
the  black  faces.  They  looked  admiringly  at  each  other,  but  the 
little  boys  were  forced  to  wipe  it  away,  much  to  their  discom- 
fiture :  they  were  not  thought  worthy  to  bear  such  a  distinction. 
When  they  were  grown-up  warriors  they  might  carry  a  red  nose, 
but  not  yet.  Is  there  not  much  the  same  nonsense  with  us? 
The  customs  of  nations  differ;  but  we  in  Europe  are  not  more 
proud  and  grave  with  our  stars  and  orders,  than  these  honest 
black  fellows  with  their  favored  noses. 

Leaving  this  station,  I  again  met  several  mobs  of  blacks,  some 
of  whom,  as  usual,  wanted  smoke ;  but  I  was  determined  not  to 
have  any  conversation  or  dealings  with  so  many  while  alone. 
Once  friendly  with  them,  I  could  not  hinder  them  from  getting 
around  me,  and  I  should  then  be  at  their  mercy.  I  refused, 


454  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WOULD.  ' 

therefore,  to  have  the  least  talk  with  them,  always  getting  my 
gun  ready  as  soon  as  they  showed  any  disposition  to  he  saucy ; 
and  I  passed  unmolested  through  all.  Once  I  was  very  near  get- 
ting into  difficulties  with  them,  hut  I  must  acknowledge  I  was 
to  hlame,  though  I  did  not  mean  any  harm. 

Coming  one  day  to  a  camp  of  blacks,  who  wanted  smoke,  I 
refused  at  first;  one  of  them  threw,  while  I  was  with  them,  his 
boomerang  at  a  little  walloby  that  jumped  up  close  to  us,  while 
we  were  opposite  each  other.  The  weapon  missed  the  animal 
but  coming  back  to  us  with  arrow  speed,  I  had  just  time  to  dodge 
away  from  under  it.  Even  then  it  grazed  my  arm,  leaving,  as  I 
afterward  found,  a  deep  blue  spot  for  a  remembrance.  While 
the  blacks  laughed  and  jumped  at  the  fun  of  the  thing,  I  turned 
to  the  little  black  fellow — as  ugly  a  black  as  I  had  ever  seen — and 
offered  him  tobacco  for  his  boomerang.  We  soon  made  a  trade, 
and  I  followed  my  road  unmolested.  Next  morning,  I  met  an- 
other tribe,  but  refused  to  have  any  thing  to  do  with  them — they 
were  too  numerous ;  and  having  traveled  on  a  while,  1  came  to 
a  burial-ground  of  the  natives. 

The  tombs  consisted  of  three  rude  hillocks,  over  which  were 
raised  as  many  harbor-like  huts  of  branches,  covered  with  bushes, 
to  make  each  nearly  dark  inside.  It  is  a  fashion  with  these 
tribes,  as  a  kind  of  tribute  to  the  dead,  to  throw,  when  they  pass 
their  graves,  little  branches  or  bushes  upon  them.  I  ha<J  never 
seen  the  interior  of  such  a  place,  and  some  white  objects  I  could 
faintly  discern  in  the  dark,  awakened  my  curiosity,  though  I 
knew  very  well  that  the  blacks  hate  nothing  more  than  a  white 
man  profaning  the  graves  of  their  dead.  Therefore,  throwing 
down  my  packet  and  blanket  I  looked  to  my  gun,  not  to  be  sur- 
prised by  some  prowling  native,  and  first  scanning  the  wood 
around  me  attentively,  to  observe  if  any  one  was  watching,  I 
crawled  in. 

There  was  a  most  disgusting  smell  in  the  hut,  the  blacks 
seeming  to  bury  their  dead  not  very  deep  ;  but  not  minding  that, 
I  looked  before  all  other  things  to  the  white  objects  I  had  seen, 
and  found  them  to  be  large  things  like  bowls,  made  of  some 
white  earth,  mixed  up  with  grass  and  hair,  as  it  seemed,  to  make 
them  consistent.  As  I  afterward  learned,  these  were  the  so-called 
"  soul-caps,"  the  women  wear  at  the  death  of  a  relation ;  they 
plaster  these  things  upon  their  heads,  as  our  ladies  wear  mourn- 


MARCH  THROUGH  THE  MURRAY  VALLEY.     455 

ing  bonnets,  and  walk  about  with  them  a  certain  time,  after 
which  they  are  deposited  upon  the  graves.  I  should  have  liked 
very  much  to  have  taken  one  away  with  me,  but  it  was  too  heavy 
to  carry — ten  to  twelve  pounds — so  I  left  it.  The  hill  consisted, 
apparently,  of  a  kind  of  framework,  covered  with  soil  and  sand. 

Making  this  examination  as  rapidly  as  I  could,  I  sometimes 
glanced  through  the  branches  to  see  that  no  unwelcgme  witness 
was  approaching ;  but  the  place  lay  in  perfect  quietness ;  and 
crawling  out  again,  I  lifted  my  things  over  my  shoulder  and 
walked  on.  Just  when  I  left  the  hut,  I  thought  once  I  had  seen 
a  dark  shape  behind  some  salt  bushes ;  but  I  might  have  been 
mistaken,  for  watching  a  good  while  after  that,  to  see  if  any  thing 
moved,  I  could  discover  nothing. 

Having  followed  the  edge  of  the  sandy  malley  hills  this  morning, 
I  thought  at  last  their  ridges  were  turning  off  too  far  to  the  right ; 
and,  leaving  the  malley,  I  took  a  straighter  direction  through  a 
lower  flat,  covered  with  scarcely  any  thing  but  salt-bush  and 
scrub.  Not  knowing  whether  ^1  should  be  able  to  reach  the  river 
that  afternoon  if  I  kept  the  direction  I  was  taking,  and  not  being 
quite  sure  that  I  had  been  unobserved  in  the  graves,  I  thought  it 
best  to  look  out  for  a  good  place  to  watch,  and  lay  down  about 
half  an  hour  to  see  if  any  one  was  following  me. 

I  had  not  lain  five  minutes,  when  I  saw  a  black  coming  along 
quickly  and  carefully,  exactly  in  my  track,  and  much  to  my  as- 
tonishment I  recognized  the  same  black  little  devil  of  whom  I 
had  bought  the  boomerang  the  other  morning,  and  now  thought 
about  twenty  miles  distant.  After  him  there  came  another 
black,  and  my  heart  beat  quicker  when  I  asked  myself  what 
business  these  rascals  could  have  in  following  my  track  ?  They 
were  most  certainly  bent  on  mischief ;  and  though  I  had  made  it 
a  rule  on  starting  not  to  shed  human  blood,  nor  hurt  a  native  in 
the  least,  if  I  could  help  it,  I  was  fully  determined  not  to  let 
them  get  any  advantage  over  me.  I  felt  curious  to  know  what 
they  would  do,  as  soon  as  they  discovered  me  watching  them. 
They  might  have  been  a  hundred  yards  from  me,  and  the  discov- 
ery could  not  be  far  off,  when  suddenly  a  small  flock  of  black 
cockatoos  came  rushing  over  the  bushes,  and  alighted  on  the 
trees  above  me.  I  turned  my  head,  without  thinking  of  it,  half 
round  to  them,  and  the  wily  birds  dispersing  suddenly,  as  if  a 
blow  had  been  struck  between  them,  darted  screaming  away  in 


456  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

every  direction.  Wonderful  was  the  effect  of  this  upon  the  na- 
tives ;  they  know  well  every  sign  in  the  bush,  and  judging,  as  I 
thought,  directly  from  the  screams  of  the  birds  of  the  cause  of 
their  disturbance,  and  knowing  me  to  be  close  before  them,  they 
as  quickly  disappeared  as  the  cockatoos  ;  \Vhen  I  turned  my  head 
again  I  noticed  them  to  the  right  and  left,  dodge  into  the  bushes, 
and  they  were  gone.  I  kept  my  place  for  an  hour,  but  nothing 
disturbed  the  uninterrupted  peace  of  the  spot.  That  night  I  lit 
a  fire,  roasted  a  couple  of  pigeons  I  had  shot  in  the  course  of  the 
day,  then  left  the  fire  to  lay  down  somewhere  in  the  bushes,  as 
a  precaution  against  surprise  during  the  night.  This  had  not 
been  useless  :  next  morning,  when  I  went  back  to  the  place 
where  my  fire  had  been,  I  found  the  tracks  of  the  two  rascals  in 
the  ashes,  and  knew  now  that  they  intended  mischief. 

Keeping  as  straight  a  direction  as  I  could,  but  looking  out  at 
the  same  time  for  the  most  open  places,  not  to  be  attacked  at  a 
disadvantage,  my  march  began  to  be  rather  too  exciting.  With 
watching  and  listening  and  lying  in  wait  for  the  enemy,  and 
walking  on  again,  I  at  last  got  perfectly  nervous,  and  determined 
if  those  black  devils  showed  themselves  again  in.  my  track  to  give 
them  something  by  which  they  might  remember  me.  It  must 
have  been  nearly  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  when  I  came 
upon  sheep  tracks,  a  certain  sign  that  you  are  between  three  and 
four  miles  of  a  sheep  station,  when  I  again  saw  the  black  body 
of  a  native  glide  across  the  path,  about  a  hundred  yards  before 
me.  They  must  have  thought  me  further  ahead — for  I  had  lain 
about  half  an  hour  behind  a  tea- tree,  waiting  for  them — and 
looked  at  the  path  to  find  my  track.  But  I  was  tired  of  being 
chased  like  a  wild  animal  by  these  devils,  and  raising  my  gun  a 
moment,  I  sent  a  load  of  duck-shot  right  after  the  rascal,  just 
as  he  disappeared  in  the  bushes.  At  the  same  moment,  scarcely 
leaving  me  time  to  jump  out  of  the  way,  I  saw  one  of  their  long 
spears  approach,  and  it  stuck  in  the  sand  behind  me.  It  rrmst 
have  been  thrown  very  far,  for  it  was  weak,  and  would  not  have 
done  much  harm,  except  through  its  own  weight ;  but  though 
the  bushes  in  that  direction  were  thin  and  scattered,  I  could  not 
discover  the  hand  that  had  thrown  it,  neither  did  I  find  any 
blood  in  the  track  of  the  black  I  had  shot  at.  I  hope  he  was 
more  frightened  than  hurt ;  but  from  that  minute  they  gave  up 
the  chase.  I  saw  no  more  of  them,  and  reaching  the  shepherd's 


MARCH  THROUGH  THE  MURRAY  VALLEY.     457 

hut  the  same  evening,  he  told  me  there  was  not  the  least  danger 
of  those  thieves  following  my  track  next  day,  for  I  was  entering 
the  territories  of  another  and  more  friendly  tribe,  by  whom  they 
would  never  dare  run  the  risk  of  being  caught. 

From  here  I  had  no  more  adventures — at  least,  none  worth 
mentioning.  Near  the  northwest  bend  of  the  Murray,  the 
blacks  consist  principally  of  tribes  that  go  down  in  the  rainy  sea- 
*  son  to  Adelaide,  to  procure  their  provisions  and  clothing,  and  very 
rarely  commit  a  murder,  though  they  will  rob  a  poor  bundleman, 
if  they  get  a  chance. 

The  northwest  bend,  as  the  large  turn  is  called  which  the 
Murray  takes  in  reaching  the  higher  land  of  the  Adelaide  coun- 
try is  really  a  remarkable  place.  The  large  river  has  kept  to 
this  point — with  the  exception  of  some  bends,  in  its  whole  dis- 
tance— a  straight  course  from  east  to  west,  for  more  than  a  thou- 
sand miles  ;  but  there  it  suddenly,  and  for  the  distance  of  half  a 
mile,  turns  straight  down  to  the  south,  forming  a  perfect  elbow, 
keeping  this  course  nearly  straight  down  to  Lake  Alexandria,  or 
Victoria  Lake,  as  the  Australians  call  it  now,  though  having 
Lord  knows  how  many  Victoria  Lakes  already.  The  English 
are  indifferent  hands  at  giving  names,  especially  in  Australia,  for 
the  same  name  occurs  every  where  ;  and  if  you  strip  Australia  of 
the  appellations  Victoria,  Albert,  Bathurst,  Melville,  arid  Van 
Diemen,  there  will  be  few  lakes  and  capes  possessed  of  one. 

Lake  Alexandria  or  Victoria  can  hardly  be  called  a  lake  ;  it  is 
a  wide  lagoon,  with  the  channel  of  the  Murray  running  through 
it  into  Encounter  Bay,  and  small  vessels  wanting  to  cross  the 
lake  have  to  keep  this  channel  throughout,  or  they  will  rim 
aground. 

The  soil  of  the  country  and  the  vegetation  retain  the  same 
features,  throughout  many  hundreds  of  miles  up  the  stream.  In. 
some  places  the  settlers  have  tried  to  sow  and  raise  wheat  in  the 
sandy  hills,  since  the  river  swept  their  harvests  away  in  the  bot- 
toms, but  it  was  not  possible  ;  and  the  sheep  and  stock-holders 
down  the  whole  length  of  the  Murray  depend  for  their  bread 
upon  the  ports  or  the  settlements  nearest  to  them. 

Reaching  the  lower  part  of  the  Murray,  below  the  northwest 
bend,  the  traveler  finds  boarding  and  eating-houses,  and  from 
that  time  he  may  say  he  leaves  the  bush,  for  he  steps  into  civil- 
ized life,  and  every  step  has  to  be  paid  for. 

U 


458  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

Wood's  eating-house  was  the  first  I  came  to ;  the  second  one, 
Morrunda,  whence  a  road  leads  through  the  scrub  in  a  straight 
direction,  away  from  the  Murray.  It  was,  however,  a  tedious 
way — thirty-four  miles  in  one  stretch,  without  a  drop  of  water, 
except  what  a  good  rain  had  deposited  as  a  cooling  drink  in  lit- 
tle pools.  And  there  is  really  no  water  to  be  got  through  all 
that  distance,  several  men  having  in  vain  tried  to  dig  wells  there. 
They  found  water,  but  it  was  brackish  and  not  fit  to  drink. 

I  camped  that  night  under  the  malley  bushes,  but  I  could  see 
the  far-off  Adelaide  hills — a  pleasant  sight  for  me,  for  I  knew 
that  I  had  left  the  worst  of  my  journey  behind.  That  whole 
night  there  was  thunder  and  lightning  over  the  distant  hills,  but 
I  lay  comparatively  dry  ;  only  a  little  shower  once  in  a  while 
reaching  here. 

Next  morning  with  daybreak  I  was  walking  through  an  open 
plain,  only  thinly  grown  over  with  salt-bush  and  malley,  and 
beheld  several  kangaroos.  I  had  afterward  a  real  kangaroo 
hunt ;  partly  for  the  sport,  partly  for  the  meat.  But  I  have  no 
room  to  give  the  reader  a  description  of  it.  With  part  of  the 
meat  of  the  one  I  killed  I  went  back  to  the  fire  to  have  a  good 
broil.  L  noticed  many  more  as  I  walked  on,  scattered  through 
that  wide  plain,  apparently  very  little  disturbed  by  human 
beings.  I  reached  in  the  afternoon,  about  two  o'clock,  the 
Adelaide  hills,  and  with  them  a  green  sward.  The  ground  was 
covered  with  a  short  but  good-looking  grass ;  but  gum  bushes 
and  little  gum  trees,  with  afterward  here  and  there  a  few  casu- 
arinas  or  cheoaks,  formed  again  the  chief  vegetation.  If  I  had 
to  paint  the  escutcheon  of  Australia,  I  would  not  take  a  kangaroo 
and  emu  by  themselves,  but  place  a  gum  tree  between  them  ; 
and  every  body  could  form  by  that  for  himself  a  good  idea  of  the 
country. 

I  was  glad  enough  when  I  had  to  climb  the  first  hills.  The 
Murray  bottom  with  its  wide  desolate  shores,  with  all  its  blacks, 
all  its  dangers  and  hardships,  lay  behind  me ;  behind  me,  in 
fact,  lay  the  most  tedious  part  of  my  whole  journey,  and  I  should 
soon,  after  several  months'  privation,  reach  a  civilized  part  of  the 
country,  and  with  it  find  my  trunk  in  Adelaide,  with  clean,  dry, 
and  complete  clothing.  The  reader  must  know  that  I  had  lost 
every  thing  of  that  description,  and  had  made  the  entire  journey 
with  one  shirt  on  my  back,  washing  it  over  and  over  again  on 


MARCH  THROUGH  THE  MURRAY  VALLEY.     459 

the  road,  with  my  cocked  gun  lying  beside  me,  and  walking  up 
and  down  while  it  dried ;  my  "  oh  no,  we  never  mention  them" 
were  also  rather  the  worse  for  wear,  and  1  really  did  not  know 
how  L  could  appear  decently  in  the  streets  of  Adelaide.  But 
there  was  no  help  for  it,  and  forward  I  went  in  as  good  spirits  as 
a  pouring  down  rain  which  had  commenced  that  morning  at  ten 
o'clock  and  lasted  several  days,  would  let  me. 

I  met  several  people  here  on  the  road.  There  was  a  copper 
mine  not  far  off,  somewhere,  but  as  yet  I  had  riot  seen  a  house. 
The  rain  continued  to  pour  down,  and  I  was  thoroughly  wet 
when  I  reached  the  first  houses ;  and  the  first  public-house, 
Norton's,  as  it  is  called,  and  then  a  warm  room  and  a  hot  toddy 
worked  wonders  with  my  inner  man. 

I  met  here  a  gentleman  of  the  name  of  Scott,  who  had  a  run 
not  far  from  the  northwest  bend  of  the  Murray,  and  was  going 
to  Adelaide  on  business.  He  was  on  horseback,  and  left  me 
next  morning  far  behind.  We,  however,  enjoyed  a  very  pleasant 
evening  together,  the  first  for  a  long  time  I  had  passed  with  a 
"  swell,"  as  my  mates  on  the  Murray  would  have  said  ;  the  first 
in  which  I  could  be  permitted  to  hear  of  something  more  in- 
teresting than  cows  with  crumpled  or  straight  horns,  oxen 
marked  on  the  shoulder  or  off-hip,  blacks,  runs,  sheep  and  cattle. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    ADELAIDE    DISTRICT. 

WHEN  I  entered  the  house,  I  saw  a  number  of  people  pressing 
round  a  small  chimney  in  the  bar-room ;  and  while  the  land- 
lord kindled  a  fire  in  the  parlor,  I  stopped  there  a  little  while 
to  learn  the  subject  of  what  appeared  to  be  a  lively  conversa- 
tion. 

"  They  have  found  a  nugget  of  seven  ounces,  in  the  Ophir 
Diggings,"  says  an  old  man,  wiping  his  spectacles.  He  had 
been  reading  out  of  a  newspaper  he  held  in  his  hand,  while 
the  others  looked,  with  glistening  eyes,  over  his  shoulders. 

"  California  again .!"  I  thought,  with  a  low-murmured  maledic- 
tion, for  I  had  been  tired,  during  a  long  residence  in  that  golden 
land  of  hearing  of  nothing  but  lumps,  and  ounces,  and  claims, 
and  all  the  incidents  of  life  in  the  diggings,  to  which  I  preferred 
even  oxen  and  runs,  though  far  from  desirous  of  having  too  much 
of  them.  But  "Ophir?"  They  must  have  discovered  another 
mine  in  California  I  had  not  heard  of.  In  five  minutes  I  was  in 
possession  of  the  whole  story  :  gold  discovered  in  Australia.  I 
knew  then  too  well  I  had  to  go  over  again  those  never-ending 
relations  of  small  boys  lifting  up  large  lumps  of  a  hundred  and 
fifty  pounds  weight,  &c.  But  "  nuggets" — I  had  not  heard  of 
that  word  before.  On  inquiring,  I  found  it  was  a  real  Austra- 
lian appellation  found  with  the  gold.  Who  had  invented  it,  I 
could  not  discover,  nor  could  any  body  in  Sydney  afterward  tell  me 
the  origin  of  it.  There  was  no  joke  about  the  gold-finding,  for  the 
inhabitants  of  the  district  soon  felt  it  in  a  practical  way — the  ton 
of  wheat  rising  from  £15  suddenly  to  £30.  I  was  glad  soon 
after  to  enter  the  quiet  parlor,  and  get  rid  of  the,  to  me,  intolera- 
ble stories  of  nuggets  and  lumps. 

I  think  it  necessary  here  to  remark  that  it  was  not  my  dress 
that  procured  me  the  honor  of  a  supper  in  the  parlor,  and  a  bed 


ADELAIDE  DISTRICT.  461 

in  the  state-room.  I  looked  far  worse  than  any  of  the  teamsters 
or  miners  in  the  tap-room  ;  but  the  landlord  had  found  out — for 
I  did  not  look  like  a  common  bundleman  with  my  gun  and  knife, 
and  the  way  I  carried  my  blanket — that  I  was  the  man  who  had 
started  in  a  canoe  down  the  Hume,  the  Sydney  papers  having 
mentioned  it ;  and  he  seemed  to  be  very  much  pleased  to  see  me 
in  his  house.  He  had  been  once  a  sergeant  of  the  police,  and 
gave  me  that  evening  some  very  interesting  accounts  of  some 
of  his  former  skirmishes  with  the  bushrangers. 

The  next  morning,  a  single  black  swan  came  over  the  hills, 
and  alighted  in  a  little  channel  formed  by  the  rain-water.  .  Such 
a  bird  had  not  been  seen  there  for  many  a  year,  and  the  people 
were  quite  astonished.  I  went  out  and  shot  it,  and  took  the  skin 
with  me.  I  had  a  rough  march  that  morning ;  plenty  of  rain 
and  wind,  and  the  latter  driving  against  me,  particularly  when 
I  reached  the  tops  of  some  of  the  naked  and  round  ridges,  so  as 
to  make  me  lean  forward  with  my  whole  body  to  resist  its  force. 
The  vegetation  here  was  real  Australian  gum  trees,  nothing  but 
gum  trees,  and  good  grass ;  and  at  about  eleven  o'clock,  I  reached 
the  first  fences,  the  first  plowed  land,  saw  again  long  and 
straight  furrows  through  brown  and  fertile  soil,  and  over  there, 
on  the  slope  of  that  low  hill  where  the  little  straw-thatched  house 
was  standing,  a  man  was  plowing  with  his  six  oxen,  a  woman 
leading  the  whole.  I  was  more  than  a  thousand  yards  distant, 
but  I  would  have  sworn  to  his  being  a  German. 

I  had  reached  the  outskirts  of  the  so-called  Angas  Park — a 
rather  large  district  a  Mr.  Angas  has  let  exclusively  to  Germans, 
and  done  very  well  by  it.  Each  farmer  has  his  little  house  in 
some  corner  of  his  own  section  ;  and,  without  being  in  a  village, 
the  traveler  finds  himself  in  a  perfectly  cultivated  district,  and 
amidst  an  industrious  thriving  population.  Most  of  the  Germans 
rent  this  land  for  fourteen  years,  with  the  right  to  buy  it  after 
this  time  at  £4  an  acre  ;  and  they  do  very  well  there.  But  Mr. 
Angas  does  better  :  he  gets  a  certain  part  of  his  property — and 
he  owns  there  an  immense  stretch  of  country — well  cultivated, 
and  sees  an  industrious  and  thriving  population  grow  up  in  it. 
while  he  is  able  to  sell  part  of  that  land  at  a  very  good  profit, 
getting  the  seed  he  sows  paid  for,  and  bringing  his  other  lands  to 
a  good  price.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  a  blessing  for  the  poor 
people  who  are  settled  on  these  estates.  A  great  many  of  them 


462  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

came  over  to  Australia  without  a  penny  in  their  pockets — ay,  in 
debt  for  their  passage — and  they  find  here  a  way  offered,  not  only 
to  get  work  and  merely  to  exist,  as  they  had  done  in  the  Old 
World,  but  to  secure  a  provision  for  their'  old  age,  and  render 
their  children  comfortable,  without  doing  more  than  they  had  done 
at  home — maybe  not  so  much. 

I  entered  several  of  these  houses,  and  what  astonished  me  most 
was  to  see  the  inside  of  them.  I  had  once  or  twice  to  step  to  the 
window,  that  my  old  friends,  the  gum  trees,  might  convince  me 
that  I  was  in  Australia.  I  knew  well  enough  already,  from  the 
United  States,  how  my  countrymen  like  to  carry  with  them  what 
they  can  possibly  bring  on  board  of  a  vessel,  and  some  are  really 
sorry  at  being  obliged  to  leave  houses  and  stables ;  but  I  could 
never  have  thought  it  possible,  without  seeing  it  here,  how  they 
had  been  able  to  transplant  their  old  rooms  from  home,  with  every 
thing  that  belonged  to  them  originally,  even  the  smell,  to  such  a 
far-off  and  strange  country  as  Australia.  Not  only  their  dress 
was  the  same — there  was  an  excuse  for  that — but  the  tables  and 
chairs,  the  stoves,  the  glass  panes  in  the  windows,  the  nails  in  the 
wall,  the  kettles,  and  pans,  and  pannikins,  ay,  even  the  earthen 
plates  and  dishes,  with  verses  of  Scripture  or  Catechism  written 
upon  them,  and  glazed  over  in  the  beautiful  hand-writing  of  the 
potter.  If  they  had  taken  at  home  one  of  these  rooms  out,  packed 
it  up  carefully  in  cotton,  and  planted  it  again  in  the  New  World, 
they  could  not  have  preserved  it  better. 

A  most  pleasant  feeling  it  was  for  me  to  hear,  so  far  away  from 
home,  the  mother  tongue  again,  wherever  I  turned.  I  did  not 
hear  a  single  English  word  that  whole  day  ;  and,  what  is  more 
extraordinary,  I  did  not  see  a  single  English  face.  I  reached 
Tanunda,  also  a  little  German  town,  that  evening  rather  late, 
stopping  also  there  in  a  German  public-house ;  coming  as  it  seemed, 
with  one  bound  out  of  the  mobs  of  the  blacks  into  an  entirely 
German  life.  That  night  a  whole  crowd  of  my  countrymen  col- 
lected round  the  fireside  of  the  large  parlor,  and  I  sat  quietly  in  a 
corner,  without  taking  the  least  part  in  the  conversation,  and 
only  enjoying  by  myself,  with  a  feeling  it  would  be  impossible  to 
describe,  the  full  consciousness  of  that  moment. 

Next  morning  I  started  very  early  for  Gawlertown,  only  six- 
«een  miles  distant,  but  with  the  determination  to  return  to  Ta- 
nunda, and  see  some  more  of  the  life  and  doings  of  this  little  place, 


ADELAIDE  DISTRICT  463 

of  which  I  had  heard  very  much  some  time  ago,  on  account  of  a 
religious  sect  of  old  Lutherans,  that  had  settled  in  the  immediate 
neighborhood. 

The  same  evening  I  reached  Gawlertown,  and  started  the  next 
morning  with  another  "royal  mail" — what  extraordinary  con- 
veyances the  Australians  are  pleased  to  call  royal  mails — to  Ade- 
laide, a  distance  of  twenty-six  miles,  which  we  made  in  four  hours 
and  a  half,  passing  at  the  same  time  a  part  of  the  way  what  is 
called  by  poor  back-broken  travelers  the  "  nutcracker  road," 
where,  it  is  said,  no  passenger  could  bring,  even  in  his  pockets,  a 
nut  across  the  place,  without  getting  it  cracked  on  the  road.  No 
word  is  spoken  during  the  whole  distance,  while  the  royal  mail  is 
in  progress,  for  fear  of  getting  one's  tongue  between  one's  teeth, 
and  having  it  bit  off. 

On  the  cart,  I  met  a  German  who  went  to  Adelaide  on  the 
rather  delicate  mission  to  recover  his  runaway  wife.  I  never 
have  heard,  by-the-by,  of  so  many  runaway  women  in  my  life  as 
here  in  Australia.  It  seemed  to  me  rather  an  epidemic  than  any 
thing  else.  From  three  stations  I  touched  on  the  Murray,  I  heard 
of  a  runaway  woman,  and  had  the  happy  widower  pointed  out 
to  me  ;  and  in  Tanunda  I  heard  mentioned  that  night  I  staid 
there,  three  belonging  to  the  neighborhood.  It  is  really  a  dan- 
gerous thing  to  take  a  wife  in  Australia  ;  and  how  will  it  be 
when  they  have  railroads  ?  I  believe  this  is  one  reason  why  the 
married  Australians  do  not  like  the  idea  of  having  railways 
established  among  them. 

The  country  between  Tanunda  and  Gawlertown  is  exceedingly 
fertile ;  but,  having  passed  this  little  place,  we  entered  the  Gawler 
plain,  and  agriculture  seemed  to  be  cut  off  here  at  one  blow. 
There  was  nothing  but  a  wide  plain  with  a  good  pasture. 

Some  minutes  past  ten  o'clock  we  reached  Adelaide,  a  far  out 
built  and  quite  new  place,  as  it  seemed,  with  fine  houses  and  a 
good  site  ;  and  a  long  time  before  that,  we  could  see  the  masts 
in  the  harbor  of  Port  Adelaide  five  miles  beyond. 

I  felt  a  little  bashful  as  to  entering  Adelaide  in  such  a  dress, 
or  rather,  undress,  as  I  had  upon  me  ;  but  there  was  no  help  for 
it.  I  knew  I  had  money  in  the  bank,  and  my  trunk  in  the  store- 
rooms of  Messrs.  Naltenius  Meyer  and  Co.,  in  Adelaide,  to  whom 
I  had  also  a  letter  of  introduction  from  Sydney,  and  that  I  should 
soon  be  another  man.  The  reader  may  judge  of  my  surprise, 


464  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WOULD. 

when  I  entered  the  store  of  those  gentlemen,  and  found  that  they 
knew  nothing  about  my  things  having  received  neither  a  letter 
nor  the  trunk  from  Sydney.  There  was  I  exactly  in  the  same 
situation  as  two  years  ago  in  Valparaiso — in  a  strange  place  with- 
out any  thing,  uncomfortable  in  the  extreme,  and  obliged  to  run 
about  town  and  buy  a  new  dress,  literally  from  top  to  toe.  I  had 
nothing  with  me  except  my  gun  and  knife,  that  I  would  have 
touched  again  ;  and  all  I  could  do  was  to  write  directly  to  Sydney, 
and  ask  Mr.  Kirchner  what  had  become  of  my  things  ;  for  the 
little  vessel  that  should  have  brought  them  had  arrived  here  in 
safety. 

At  the  same  time,  I  had  the  most  unpleasant  feeling  of  new 
clothing  all  over  me.  I  hate  to  put  on  a  new  coat  or  any  other  part 
of  dress.  I  despise  new  boots,  particularly  if  bought  ready-made 
in  a  store  ;  they  never,  or  rarely,  fit  me.  I  do  not  know  how  it 
is,  I  arn  in  no  way  extraordinarily  formed,  but  I  never  have 
bought  a  coat  ready  made  of  which  the  sleeves  were  not  too  nar- 
row, or  there  was  something  else  the  matter  with  it;  and  now  I 
had  to  slip — and  glad  enough  to  have  the  chance — into  every 
thing  new,  not  excepting  cap  and  handkerchief;  and  the  first 
fortnight  I  felt  as  comfortable  as  a  dog  in  a  jacket,  or  an  Indian 
in  a  pair  of  shoes. 

To  say  much  respecting  Adelaide  would  be  useless ;  the  En- 
glish reader  has  had,  many  books  about  the  place,  and  I  could  only 
tell  him  something  he  already  knows.  Adelaide  is  also  a  very 
young  town,  and  though  laid  out  for  a  city,  is  not  quite  finished. 
The  public  buildings  are  scattered  every  where,  and  will  stand 
in  very  fine  situations,  if  the  spaces  between  them  and  the  other 
streets  are  filled  up  ;  but  the  main  thing  in  Adelaide  missing  at 
present,  is  the  paving  of  its  streets,  and  gas,  or  even  oil  lanterns. 
The  streets  are  floating  swamps  in  time  of  rain,  and  what  is  very 
singular,  the  whole  town  is  only  lighted  up  by  public-houses.  I 
am  not  partial  to  dram-shops,  and  have  noticed  in  Australia,  often 
with  disgust,  that  those  places  are  to  be  met  every  where,  licensed 
to  sell  spirituous  and  fermented  liquors  ;  but  I  blessed  the  very 
sign-posts,  with  their  one  or  two  blinking  lanterns,  when  I  went 
home  after  dark,  or  better  in  the  dark,  diving  with  any  thing 
but  a  blessing,  out  of  one  mud-hole  into  another,  and  only  gain- 
ing a  kind  of  survey  over  the  dangerous  ground  where  govern- 
ment had  licensed  a  man  to  keep  a  lantern  before  his  door  and  a 


ADELAIDE  DISTRICT.  465 

bar  behind  it.  This  is  a  very  wise  calculation  oi  government ; 
for  not  only  do  they  avoid  spending  a  penny  for  illumination,  but 
get  paid  by  the  people  for  permission  to  provide  their  own. 

The  situation  of  Adelaide,  though  books  for  emigrants  have 
given  such  glowing  descriptions  of  it,  can  only  be  excused  by  the 
scarcity  of  harbors  in  South  Australia.  Adelaide  lies  five  miles 
distant  from  its  port,  and  is  connected  with  it,  in  the  rainy  season, 
by  an  almost  impassable  road  ;  and  I  have  heard  it  said  fre- 
quently, that  goods  having  kept  well  during  a  sea- voyage  of  four 
or  five  months,  had  been  spoiled  in  coming  the  little  distance  of 
five  miles  from  the  port  to  the  town.  But  lately  I  have  heard 
that  they  have  agreed  to  build  a  railroad  down  to  the  sea-coast 
— one  of  the  greatest  improvements  to  Adelaide  that  could  be 
made. 

His  Excellency  Sir  Henry  Young,  Lieutenant- Govern  or  of 
South  Australia,  who  has  interested  himself  very  much  in  the 
navigation  of  the  Murray,  hearing  of  rny  arrival  in  Adelaide,  sent 
for  me  when  I  had  been  only  a  few  days  in  the  town,  and  seemed 
to  be  well  pleased  to  hear  his  own  observations — having  himself 
been,  I  believe,  as  far  as  the  mouth  of  the  Darling  in  a  whale- 
boat — agreed  with  me  as  to  the  possibility  of  making  the  Murray 
navigable  up  to  that  place,  since  there  are  only  a  few  bends — the 
northwest  bend  excepted — and  comparatively  very  few  snags  to 
be  cleared  away,  though  a  throughout  cleaning  of  the  channel 
will  be  necessary  on  account  of  these  snags  ;  of  water  there  will 
be  plenty  every  where.  In  the  lowest  place,  at  the  lowest  level 
— for  the  river  had  not  risen  at  the  northwest  bend  when  I 
reached  that  place — I  forded  the  Murray,  and  the  water  was  at 
least  two  feet  and  eight  inches  in  depth. 

I  had  also  the  pleasure  of  meeting  at  the  Government  House 
Mr.  Sturt,  the  enterprising  traveler  of  the  Australian  wilds,  who 
had  done  his  best,  provided  with  all  possible  means  too  for  the 
undertaking,  to  enter  the  interior  of  Australia,  but  in  vain  ;  the 
blacks  could  or  would  not  enter  a  wild  sand  and  salt  desert ;  and 
I  hardly  think  the  interior  of  this  vast  continent  will  ever  be 
brought  to  any  account,  not  even  for  a  passage  through  it,  from 
one  shore  to  another. 

Just  at  the  time  I  reached  Adelaide,  there  was  a  kind  of  crisis 
for  the  working  classes,  and  one  not  to  their  advantage.  The 
extreme  drought  of  the  summer  had  destroyed  all  the  pastures  of 


466  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

the  country  ;  the  necessary  oxen  for  the  carting  of  sand  and  wood 
could  not  be  kept  any  more  round  the  Burra  Burra  Mine  ;  and 
hundreds  of  workmen  lost  their  employment.  They  nearly  all 
flocked  to  Adelaide,  when  provisions  rising,  to  an  unprecedented 
price,  the  poor  laborers  were  really  badly  off.  Meetings  were 
held  to  prevent  speculators  from  sending  wheat  and  flour  away 
to  Sydney,  and  some  strong  speeches  were  held,  but  all  ended 
peaceably. 

Amusements,  Adelaide  has  none ;  for  you  can  not  call  a  thea- 
tre an  amusement  where  you  spend  a  half-crown  or  crown  to  see 
a  company  of  actors  the  smallest  town  in  Germany  would  not 
suffer  to  play  out  a  piece.  The  lessees  of  the  theatre,  Mr.  Kop- 
pin  and  Mr.  Lazard,  are  good  performers.  Mr.  Koppin,  in  fact, 
being  excellent ;  but  they  are  not  able  to  keep  the  thing  afloat 
by  themselves  ;  and  after  I  left  Adelaide,  I  was  not  astonished 
to  hear  that  they  had  been  obliged  to  shut  up. 

The  only  pleasure  people  have  there  is,  if  they  can  not  stay  at 
home,  to  go  to  some  public-house  ;  and  if  they  call  that  a  pleas- 
ure, they  may  have  plenty  of  it. 

A  short  time  ago  a  French  coffee-house  (cafe  Parisien)  was 
established  here,  but  it  woudn't  do  ;  there  are  too  few  Frenchmen 
and  Germans  in  the  place,  and  John  Bull  never  was  made  for  a 
cafe.  The  poor  Frenchman  after  having  spent  a  large  sum  in 
his  establishment,  had  to  give  it  up  for  a  bad  job. 

But  I  wanted  to  see  Tanunda  again,  and  requiring  a  place 
once  more  upon  the  royal  mail,  I  had  to  pay  my  money  down 
before  I  started.  Mr.  Chambers  keeps  this  establishment  of  the 
royal  mail ;  and  if  he  was  to  get  his  money  only  when  he  deliv- 
ered his  passengers  at  the  right  place,  and  in  the  right  time,  it 
would  be  a  hard  case  for  him,  and  a  good  thing  for  the  passengers. 
It  is  really  a  shame  for  the  magistrates  who  have  the  overseeing 
of  these  things,  to  suffer  an  imposition  on  the  public  to  go  on  under 
their  eyes  in  such  a  shameless  manner.  They  most  certainly 
know  why  they  suffer  this  ;  and  similar  jobs  are  common  through- 
out the  country.  This  time  we  had  an  interesting  trip — we  wrere 
nine  persons  holding  on  tight,  not  to  be  knocked  off  from  the  nar- 
row cart ;  four  miserably  poor  horses  pulled  us  in  a  gallop  over 
the  nutcracker  road  toward  Gawlertown  :  1  would  not  book  my- 
self further,  for  fear  of  accidents. 

Our  coachman  having  been  once,  as  he  told  us,  a  captain  of  a 


ADELAIDE  DISTRICT.  467 

small  schooner  on  some  coast,  tried  his  best  to  persuade  his  poor 
beasts  in  a  most  mixed  kind  of  sea-lingo,  to  keep  a  little  longer 
in  the  gallop  they  had  fallen  into  at  starting,  as  it  seemed  by 
mistake.  The  horses  possessed  very  singular  names,  such  as — 
Morning  Star,  Flying-fish,  Beauty,  and  Rifle-bullet.  They  got 
worse  and  worse.  The  man  did  not  know  how  to  handle  his 
whip,  taking  sometimes  the  one  and  then  the  other  end  to  play 
upon  the  horses'  backs ;  and  Morning  Star,  as  well  as  Beauty, 
got  an  impartial  flogging.  Seven  miles  further  we  changed  horses, 
and  had  now  Jenny  Lind  and  Red  Rover,  Robert  Peel  and  Kan- 
garoo. Upon  Robert  Peel  he  broke  his  whip  (but  he  had  a  spare 
one  inside)  during  the  first  quarter  of  an  hour  ;  and  if  it  had  not 
been  for  Jenny  Lind  and  Red  Rover,  we  should  never  have 
reached  the  next  station.  Kangaroo  in  some  respects  deserved 
his  name,  instead  of  jumping,  however,  he  broke  down  in  the  hind 
legs ;  but  it  looked  the  same.  At  this  station  we  had  to  walk 
between  two  and  three  miles.  The  third  station  all  went  well ; 
but  the  fourth  and  last  was  destined  to  show  us  the  advantages  of 
an  Australian  mail.  Our  little  captain  seemed  also  to  have  a 
kind  of  foreboding ;  for  when  the  groom,  a  sour-looking  fellow 
with  a  bald  head,  led  out  to  us  the  four  poorest  beasts  I  had  ever 
laid  eyes  on,  he  said,  scratching  his  head:  "Now  my  troubles 
begin — stand  by  the  halliards." 

He  was  right ;  up  and  down  we  went  from  the  cart ;  for  every 
minute  the  horses  would  stop,  even  upon  the  best  and  straightest 
road.  At  last  we  got  tired  ;  this  impostor  of  a  mail-contractor, 
who  was  known  never  to  feed  his  horses,  but  to  turn  them  out 
whenever  they  reached  a  station,  to  seek  their  meal  upon  a  plain 
where  a  kangaroo  would  have  starved,  had  taken  our  money,  and 
wanted  us  to  walk,  only  to  get  his  cart  up  to  Gawlertown  in  time 
to  cheat  another  cargo  of  dupes  into  a  passage.  We  therefore 
determined,  much  as  we  pitied  the  poor  beasts,  to  keep  our  seats 
till  the  horses  would  go  no  further,  and  leave  the  cart  to  take  care 
of  itself.  We  had  not  to  wait  long.  At  first,  when  we  gave  the 
captain  our  declaration  of  independence,  he  stopped  the  horses, 
and  declared  that  he  would  stay  there  all  night,  for  he  did  not 
want  to  kill  them  ;  but  when  we  assured  him  it  was  all  the  same 
to  us,  and  commenced  to  settle  down  in  the  cart  as  comfortably 
as  we  could,  he  caught  up  his  whip  again,  and  away  we  went 
once  more,  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  when  we  came  to  a  dead 


468  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

halt.  He  wanted  us  to  get  down  again  on  an  open,  level,  and 
hard  road  ;  we  told  him  we  would  walk  the  whole  way  if  he  only 
acknowledged  he  could  take  us  nor  futher  ;  but  he  would  not  do 
that,  and  we  kept  our  seats. 

Half  a  mile  further  on,  the  shaft-horse  broke  down,  and  the 
captain,  not  sufficiently  on  his  guard  when  the  shafts  of  the  two- 
wheeled  cart  fell  with  the  horse  to  the  ground,  shot  forward  upon 
the  prostrate  animal,  followed  by  two  Chinese  and  one  Irishman 
I  cleared  the  cart  with  a  bound,  and  got  off  free. 

It  was  perfectly  dark,  and  we  had  to  walk  about  six  miles 
into  Gawlertown,  which  we  reached  at  ten  o'clock. 

From  Gawlertown  I  took  very  good  care  not  to  walk  with 
the  mail  again,  but  went  by  myself,  and  reached  Tanunda  about 
twelve  o'clock. 

Tanunda  is  a  nice  little  place,  but  entirely  German.  There 
are  German  public-houses,  a  German  drug  store,  German  doc- 
tors, stores,  blacksmith,  carpenter,  school,  church ;  in  fact  every 
thing  is  German ;  and  walking  through  the  streets,  the  form  of 
some  house  alone  shows  an  English  character.  In  every  other 
respect  the  traveler  would  believe  himself  in  some  little  village 
of  the  old  country  between  the  Rhine  and  Oder. 

As  I  have  remarked  before,  I  felt  the  greatest  interest  in  Ta- 
nunda, on  account  of  the  religious  sect  of  which  I  had  heard  so 
much.  A  party  of  old  Lutherans  had  come  here  to  enjoy  perfect 
liberty  of  religion ;  at  the  same  time  forgetting  that  they  taught 
the  most  intolerant  religion  imaginable — even  damning  every 
thing  in  the  world  that  did  not  belong  to  their  sect ;  and  assur- 
ing "  the  heathens  and  Turks"  that  they  had  not  only  a  particu- 
lar place  in  Paradise,  but  the  exclusive  right  to  these  blessed  re- 
gions, with  rooms  to  let  at  discretion.  Mr.  Ravel  had  had  in 
former  times,  I  was  told,  a  very  large  community  ;  but  believing 
in  the  millennium,  he  unfortunately  prophesied  the  end  of  the 
world  a  year  ago.  I  have  forgotten  the  exact  date ;  but  he 
went  with  his  whole  congregation  to  a  little  valley  about  two 
or  three  miles  distant  from  Tanunda,  to  await  the  coming  of  the 
Lord  and  the  destruction  of  the  world.  A  very  heavy  thunder- 
storm and  a  drenching  rain  came  down  from  heaven  ;  in  the  end, 
these  exclusive  inheritors  of  Paradise  went  home  safe  and  sound, 
just  as  wet  as  drowned  rats,  and  the  millennium  was  a  failure. 
At  that  time  a  large  part  of  the  believers,  or  the  holy  ones  (Hei- 


ADELAIDE  DISTRICT.  469 

ligen),  as  they  called  themselves,  to  distinguish  them  from  the 
world's  children  (Weltkinder),  separated  themselves  from  Pastor 
Ravel,  and  formed  a  new  congregation,  sagaciously  putting  off 
the  millennium  to  some  uncertain  time ;  while  Mr.  Ravel  would 
only  defer  it  to  a  certain  number  of  years,  fixing  it,  I  believe,  at 
1899. 

I  shall  not  give  here  a  minute  description  of  the  intolerance  of 
this  sect,  or  the  foolish  things  they  preach  and  do.  The  English 
reader  has  only  to  put  his  head  out  of  his  window  at  home,  in  merry 
England,  and  he  can  see  much  the  same  folly  at  every  corner. 

Nearly  all  the  Germans  here  live  in  religious  communities, 
and  are  doing  exceedingly  well.  They  came  out  without  any 
thing  ;  in  fact,  most  of  them  in  debt  for  their  passage  ;  and  Mr. 
Ravel,  their  corporeal  and  spiritual  leader,  did  not  even  pick  out 
the  best  land  for  them  ;  for  they  could  have  found  better  sections 
for  less  money  ;  but  in  spite  of  that,  by  constant  industry,  and 
by  leading  a  temperate  life,  they  gradually  advanced.  At  first 
they  paid  their  debts,  then  their  rents,  and  now  most  of  them 
have  paid  for  their  land  also,  and  are  doing  well  in  this  world ; 
while  they  hope  to  do  better  in  the  next. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  large  societies,  or  companies,  who 
emigrate  to  another  country,  in  quite  another  part  of  the  world, 
never  keep  together.  They  may  be  friends,  relations,  neighbors 
at  home  ;  it  is  all  the  same.  They  hold  on  awhile,  then  feel  un- 
easy and  uncomfortable  ;  at  last  quarrel  with  one  another  and 
separate.  I  have  seen  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  such  parties 
come  over  to  the  United  States,  or  to  California.  All  had  the 
same  result,  except  a  religious  despotism  kept  them  together. 
Such  was  Rapp's  colony  on  the  Ohio  River  in  the  States,  the 
Mormons  in  California,  and  these  old  Lutherans  in  Australia. 
But  wherever  a  certain  number  of  souls  could  be  kept  together, 
their  bodies  have  fared  extremely  well  by  it ;  they  lost  of  course, 
perfect  freedom  ;  all  their  ideas  were  turned  to  one  point  only, 
and  their  spiritual  leader  had  to  care,  and  did  care  for  the  rest. 

Of  political  affairs  these  men  know  nothing — they,  with  a  few 
exceptions,  understand  only  enough  of  the  English  language  to 
drive  their  bargains  and  inquire  their  road.  As  to  voting  for  the 
legislature,  or  other  offices,  why  Mr.  Ravel  will  tell  them  who 
to  vote  for  ;  if  not,  it  is  a  matter  of  indifference — people  will  be 
elected  if  they  do  not  vote  at  all. 


470  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

It  was  the  same  thing  in  America,  where  old  Mr.  Happ,  at  a 
presidential  election,  sent  in  the  votes  of  his  followers ;  the  gov- 
ernor, however,  rejecting  them  all,  except  his  own,  giving  him 
notice  at  the  same  time,  that  his  congregation  could  not  be  con- 
sidered free  men  and  voters  because  they  had  no  free  will,  and 
were  therefore  not  allowed  a  vote. 

The  soil  round  Tanunda  is  tolerably  good,  though  not  the  best 
in  the  Adelaide  country ;  which  lies  principally  in  Lyndoch  Val- 
ley, Barker's  Hill,  and  some  other  places  ;  and  there  are  stretches 
which  would  be  unsurpassed  by  the  Mississippi  bottom,  only  the 
harvests  are  so  exceedingly  uncertain,  and  no  average  of  the  pro- 
duce can  be  easily  given.  I  have  spoken  to  farmers  there,  who 
assured  me  that  they  obtained  one  year  forty  bushels  of  wheat 
from  one  acre,  while  they  had  barely  fifteen  the  next  from  the 
same  piece  of  ground,  owing  to  the  uncertainty  of  the  seasons 
with  hot  winds  and  very  wet  winters. 

The  hilly  places,  as  Barker's  Hill,  Macclesfield,  and  others,  are 
better  protected  against  the  hot  winds  than  the  flats  and  plains, 
and  therefore  give  a  more  certain  harvest. 

The  Adelaide  district  is,  though,  a  fine  country  for  grain,  and 
will,  with  Melbourne,  remain  the  corn  magazine  of  Australia  ; 
producing  also  a  wine  that  few  countries  in  the  world  can  sur- 
pass. Not  far  from  Tanunda,  in  fact  belonging  to  it,  there  lives 
a  German,  August  Fiedler,  from  Prussia,  who  is  turning  his 
whole  attention  to  the  culture  of  the  grape,  and  with  extaordi- 
nary  success.  He  has  been  planting  seventy-two  different  kinds 
of  grapes,  to  see  which  would  thrive  best ;  and  is  of  opinion  that 
wine-planters  will  always  be  obliged  to  raise  various  species,  that 
blossom  at  different  times,  as  heavy  rains  may  destroy  their 
whole  year's  crop,  if  they  should  all  blossom  at  this  period. 
Having  only  commenced  with  this  experiment  a  few  years  since, 
all  that  he  has  done  as  yet  is  comprised  in  having  pressed  some 
of  his  grapes,  and  produced  a  most  excellent  wine.  I  tasted 
here  exactly  the  same  kind  I  had  found  at  Mr.  James  King's,  in 
Irrawang,  except  that  this  wine  was  not  so  old  ;  but  the  most 
singular  and  excellent  tasting  wine  he  had  produced  out  of  some 
Muscadine  grapes,  which  had  the  exact  tatse  of  pine-apple  punch. 
If  I  had  not  been  assured  that  it  was  the  pure  juice  of  the  grape, 
I  should  have  thought  it  Rhine  wine  mixed  with  the  juice  of  a 
pine- apple  and  some  sugar.  I  took  a  small  medicine  bottle  of  it 


ADELAIDE  DISTRICT.  471 

with  me  to  see  how  it  would  keep ;  I  had  the  bottle  with  rne  on 
my  voyage  for  ahout  a  year,  three  months  of  that  time  in  Batavia  ; 
and  tasting  it  afterward  in  Germany,  it  was  as  good  and  strong 
as  ever,  and  equal  to  the  best  port  wine,  though  far  sweeter,  than 
I  had  ever  drunk — but  the  pine-apple  flavor  was  gone. 

The  land  in  Australia  is  much  easier  cleared  than  in  the  States, 
there  being  not  so  much  underwood  to  work  out ;  but  America 
has  an  advantage  in  the  wood,  which  brings  a  profit.  In  the 
States,  when  clearing  a  certain  quantity  of  ground,  the  trees  are 
nearly  always  left  standing,  or  the  small  ones  are  cut  down  and 
burnt  or  used,  arid  the  stumps  left  in  the  field  will  rot  away  in 
the  course  of  ten  years  sufficiently  to  allow  of  their  being  taken 
out  by  the  plow ;  but  the  stump  of  a  gum  tree  will  never  rot. 
It  will  send  new  shoots  out  every  year,  and  you  have  to  take  it 
out  of  the  ground  as  it  is,  or  you  can  never  get  rid  of  it.  Nor 
will  all  gum  trees  split  well  to  make  good  fences ;  but  they 
manage  to  get  enough  rails  out  of  some  of  them. 

But  enough  of  these  things ;  the  English  reader,  if  he  wants  to 
hear  any  thing  about  emigration  to  Australia  has  plenty  of  such 
books  at  home  ;  books,  too,  which  paint  Australia  as  a  Paradise, 
and  cover  it  with  all  the  charms  and  beauties  of  nature,  all  the 
riches  of  the  world,  and  all  the  advantages  man,  the  most  dis- 
satisfied of  his  sect  could  ever  require.  I  will  do  no  such  thing. 
I  have  no  notion  of  inducing  the  reader  to  emigrate  to  Australia, 
or  to  any  other  country  in  the  world  ;  I  shall  only  tell  him  how 
I  found  those  countries  I  visited,  how  they  appeared  to  me,  and 
what  I  have  seen  there  new  and  interesting. 

So  I  think  we  may  just  as  well  go  back  to  Adelaide,  leaving 
the  sects  in  Tanunda  to  take  care  of  themselves ;  and  dive  once 
more  into  the  gold  excitement  of  the  city,  which  spread  more  and 
more.  No  more  vessels  were  advertised  for  Sydney,  nor  for  the 
Ophir  and  Turori  diggings  ;  offering  quick  passages  to  the  land  of 
promise. 

.  On  the  royal  mail,  going  from  Gawlertown  to  Adelaide,  we 
had  two  interesting  characters.  One  was  an  old  fellow  who  went 
directly  to  the  "  goold,"  as  he  called  it ;  he  did  not  want  so  much 
of  it ;  indeed  would  have  preached  to  us,  even  on  the  dangerous 
seat  of  a  royal  mail.  He  told  us,  and  the  man  was  in  earnest— .a 
lady  in  Sydney  has  since  written  a  whole  volume  about  it,  and 
proved  it  by  Scripture,  too — that  Australia  was  really  the  prorn- 


472  JOURNEY    ROUND    THE  WORLD. 

ised  land  of  the  Lord,  promised  in  the  Revelations,  and  given  to 
us  now  by  the  goodness  of  the  Lord.  He  was  going  now  to  get 
his  share ;  and  those  who  believed,  had  only  to  strike  a  spade  in 
the  ground — he  would  say  no  more. 

The  other  was  a  stout  lady  from  Gawlertown.  "When  she 
came  to  the  post-office,  and  it  was  a  dark  raw  morning,  she  asked 
if  the  bar-keeper,  had  any  hot  water.  "  Yes,  Ma'arn,"  said  this 
sleepy  personage,  "  and  boiling  hot  coffee,  too,  all  ready,  if  you'll 
only  step — " 

"  Thank  you,"  she  said,  "  I  don't  drink  coffee  ;  give  me  a  glass 
of  brandy  and  water,  hot !"  and  she  took  a  good  stiff  one,  too, 
treating  the  coachman  to  another,  telling  us  it  was  medicine  to 
her.  The  doctor  must  have  prescribed  for  her  a  dose  every  half- 
hour  ;  for  wherever  we  stopped,  the  lady  and  the  coachman  were 
sure  to  take  a  nobbier,  as  they  call  it  here.  "  Bless  my  soul," 
she  would  say,  when  she  got  down  from  the  cart,  to  follow  her 
doctor's  prescription,  "it  is  a  raw  morning,  and  a  drop  does  a 
body  good."  She  was  the  butcher's  wife  from  Gawlertown. 

From  Adelaide  I  visited  Macclesfield  and  the  surrounding 
country,  taking  a  pleasant  ride  over  the  lofty  range,  through  one 
of  the  most  fertile  parts  of  South  Australia.  There  are  also  in  that 
neighborhood  several  very  large  German  settlements — as  Hahn- 
dorf  for  one — and  the  farmers  belonging  to  Ravel's  sect  of  the 
millennium  are  doing  exceedingly  well.  They  have  paid  very 
high  for  the  land  ;  but  they  raise  most  excellent  crops,  and  are 
fast  making  fortunes  with  the  high  prices  of  wheat  and  flour  at 
the  present  time.  They  are  a  quiet,  industrious  class  of  people, 
plowing  and  looking  to  their  crops  in  the  week,  and  reading  the 
Bible  or  going  to  church  on  a  Sunday,  and  not  caring  a  straw 
about  the  rest  of  the  world.  The  English  are  perfectly  right  in 
thinking  them  most  useful  citizens.  They  do  well  in  Australia ; 
but  we  have  too  many  of  them  in  Germany.  They  are  good 
citizens ;  but  are  rather  too  good  for  me. 

In  Tanunda  I  had  got  acquainted  with  the  captain  of  a  Ger- 
man barque,  bound  for  Sydney  and  Manilla ;  Mr.  F.  Smith  and 
I  determined  to  go  with  him,  first  to  Sydney — for  which  port  he 
had  some  freight  from  Antwerp — and  take  a  trip  to  the  gold- 
mines of  the  Turon,  or  some  other  gully  of  present  celebrity,  and 
then  go  on  with  the  vessel  to  the  Philippean  Isles,  to  start  thence 
to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  then  home. 


ADELAIDE  DISTRICT.  473 

The  "  Wilhelmine,"  took  passengers  for  the  mines,  some  in  the 
cabin,  and  many  in  the  steerage.  There  were  also  several  Ger- 
man families  on  board,  that  had  been  some  years  in  the  Ade- 
laide district,  and  not  liking  the  country,  intended  to  go  to  New 
Zealand.  There  being  no  vessels  bound  to  any  of  the  New 
Zealand  ports  in  Adelaide,  they  hoped  to  find  a  passage  from 
Sydney. 

Passengers  for  the  mines  we  had  of  every  kind ;  shepherds, 
sailors,  farmers,  laborers,  men  and  women,  all  in  most  excellent 
spirits  for  the  undertaking.  But  vessels  do  not  sail  as  they  are 
advertised,,  and  our's  was  detained  a  few  days  before  we  could 
weigh  anchor ;  so  I  made  the  best  use  of  my  time  I  could,  and 
was  so  fortunate  as  to  get  acquainted  with  Mr.  Moorhouse,  the 
protector  of  the  Australian  aborigines,  to  whom  I  was  indebted 
for  a  visit  to  the  school-rooms  of  the  children  of  some  of  the 
southern  tribes. 

The  Australian  black  has  the  black  skin,  but  not  the  woolly 
hair  of  the  African  negro  ;  his  profile  is,  however,  sometimes  en- 
tirely African,  sometimes  more  so,  as  if  belonging  to  the  Malayan 
race,  yet  occasionally  it  is  perfectly  European.  He,  therefore,  like 
many  of  the  animals  and  plants  of  this  singular  country,  puzzles 
the  naturalist  extremely.  But  savage  and  uncultivated  as  he 
seems,  without  any  religion,  except  the  fear  of  some  evil  spirits, 
who  might  do  him  harm — without  habitation,  except  the  tem- 
porary shelter  of  a  piece  of  bark,  stripped  from  the  tree  and  set 
slanting  upon  end,  to  turn  the  rain — without  clothing,  except  in 
a  very  cold  season,  sometimes  an  opossum  rug  or  mantle — ay, 
without  truth  or  honesty,  except  when  you  can  keep  him  within 
the  range  of  your  gun — deficient  of  every  thing  we,  in  a  civilized 
state  think  necessary  for  happiness — even  for  life,  and  without 
seeming  to  want  it,  he  possesses  abilities  and  talents,  for  which 
we  are  not  at  first  disposed  to  give  him  credit.  Still,  the  germ 
of  something  better  lies  unfolded  in  his  brain — never  in  his  heart 
— perhaps  to  burn  up  brilliantly  once,  like  the  dying  flame  of  a 
lamp,  before  he  is  swept  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 

On  the  Murray  and  Murrurnbidgee,  I  was  astonished  to  see  the 
dexterity  with  which  these  savages  handled  their  rough  and  seem- 
ingly harmless  weapons — especially  the  most  singular  of  all,  the 
boomerang ;  and  to  notice  the  facility  with  which  they  learned 
to  express  themselves  in  the  English  language.  In  this  school 


474  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

there  was  ample  evidence  that  it  was  not  want  of  abilities  that 
was  the  cause  of  the  savage  state  in  which  they  continued,  in 
spite  of  all  that  government  or  the  settlers  could  do  to  alter  it. 
The  reader  shall  walk  with  me  through  the  school-room,  and 
judge  for  himself. 

The  teacher,  I  did  not  learn  his  name,  was  so  obliging  as  to 
pick  out  some  of  his  best  scholars,  three  boys  and  one  girl,  from 
ten  to  fourteen  years  of  age.  Asking  me  to  let  them  read  some- 
thing out  of  a  New  Testament  he  handed  to  me,  I  accidentally 
opened  the  first  chapter  of  St.  John  ;  each  of  the  children  had  a 
New  Testament,  and  soon  found  the  place.  "In  the  commence- 
ment was  the  word,  and  the  word  was  with  God,  and  the  word 
was  God."  The  boy  read  a  verse,  with  astonishing  facility,  and 
after  him  the  other  three.  They  had  taken  the  English  accent 
perfectly,  and  in  fact,  read  with  a  great  deal  more  expression 
and  emphasis  than  children  commonly  exhibit  in  English  village 
schools. 

I  asked  the  teacher  if  the  children  understood  what  they  were 
reading ;  I  had  no  idea  of  asking  if  they  understood  this  verse. 
He,  however,  turning  to  his  pupils,  desired  them  to  explain  the 
meaning  of  it.  I  must  acknowledge  I  felt  curious  to  learn  their 
ideas.  Their  explanation,  very  likely,  would  not  have  satisfied 
an  expounder  of  Holy  Writ,  but  it  proved  the  excellent  memory 
of  the  children.  The  word  was  with  them,  which  was  Christ 
himself;  not  the  idea  suggested  by  that  name,  but  another 
appellation.  He  was  called  the  Saviour  and  Son  of  God,  in  other 
places,  and  the  word  here. 

While  one  explained  what  he  had  read,  another  took  up  a 
slate  which  was  lying  before  him,  and  commenced  drawing  a 
white  swan,  a  picture  of  which  was  fastened,  with  many  other 
similar  representations,  on  the  wall.  The  little  fellow  had  as 
yet,  of  course,  not  sufficient  firmness  of  hand  to  give  the  outline 
of  the  bird  correctly ;  but  his  eye  caught  every  deviation  from 
the  original,  and  there  was  no  doubt  that  with  some  study  he 
would  be  able  to  draw  well.  They  all  seem  to  have  peculiarly 
the  talent  of  imitation,  and  this  has  most  certainly  assisted  them 
in  learning  to  write  ;  for  I  saw  the  copybooks  of  several  boys 
who  had  been  at  school  only  a  few  years,  and  for  a  few  months 
at  a  time,  and  they  wrote  a  better  handwriting  than  I  did,  at 
least,  one  more  regular  arid  accurate. 


ADELAIDE  DISTRICT.  475 

They  also  had  to  cipher,  which  was  taught  them  in  a  simple 
and  practical  way  with  several  pieces  of  wire  upon  which  small 
beads  were  strung  together,  ten  and  ten. 

A  perfect  picture-gallery  of  colored  drawings,  which  were 
hung  round  the  room,  seemed  to  interest  the  little  fellows,  par- 
ticularly the  most  uncivilized.  They  represented  animals,  land- 
scapes, and  different  handicrafts  and  trades,  and  had  printed 
explanations  below.  The  children  knew  not  only  what  they 
resembled,  but  their  different  colors ;  and  while  some  were 
answering  questions,  others  were  standing  apart  copying  them. 
The  conclusion  of  this  was  an  examination  in  geography,  in  which 
I  of  course  expected  them  to  be  very  imperfect,  but  was  surprised 
to  find  how  much  they  knew.  They  had  a  map  of  the  world, 
giving  the  outlines  of  the  different  countries ;  these  they  knew, 
east  and  west,  north  and  south.  They  could  tell  where  Adelaide 
was  situated,  harder  it  seemed  to  them  to  find  Sydney ;  but  no- 
body could  expect  more  from  them  ;  I  was  astonished  to  find 
them  do  so  much. 

But  what  has  been  the  result  of  these  attempts  to  civilize  a 
race  which,  in  spite  of  its  faculties,  seems  the  most  stubborn  on 
the  face  of  the  earth  ?  I  am  sorry  to  say,  a  very  limited  success. 
Whether  the  experiment  has  been  made  with  boys  or  girls,  they 
return,  as  soon  as  they  attain  a  certain  age,  to  their  old  life. 
The  missionaries  have  given  up  the  work  of  conversion  in  despair ; 
and  in  fact,  all  attempts  with  adult  blacks,  only  proved  that  so 
much  labor  and  expense  had  been  unprofitably  expended.  To 
commence,  therefore,  in  another  way,  children  were  taught,  and 
the  parents  enticed  by  every  thing  that  could  make  an  impression 
upon  them  (not  arguments  and  persuasions,  but  woolen  blankets 
and  peas  and  mutton)  to  bring  their  children  to  school,  and,  a 
still  more  difficult  thing,  to  keep  them  there.  Even  this  seems 
to  be  in  vain,  as  some  very  discouraging  cases  have  recently 
shown.  Boys  have  been  known  to  stay  a  long  time  with  their 
employers,  though  they  are  never  to  be  depended  upon,  and  are 
always  sure  to  abscond  when  you  least  expect  it ;  but  girls  will 
never  stay  beyond  a  certain  age,  and  the  cause  of  this  lies  in 
their  old  superstitions — the  fear  of  their  evil  spirits,  still  more  of 
their  old  men,  or  sorcerers,  and  they  will  always  abandon  every 
comfort  they  have  enjoyed,  than  risk  their  anger.  Girls,  when 
yet  babies,  are  promised  in  marriage,  and  when  they  gain  the 


476  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

proper  age,  generally  twelve  years,  they  must  go  to  their  hus- 
bands, and  the  whites  can  not  detain  them. 

A  most  extraordinary  example  of  such  a  case  happened  here 
only  a  very  short  time  ago.  destroying  all  the  hopes  the  teachers 
of  the  blacks  had  entertained  up  to  that  moment. 

The  protector  of  the  aborigines  had  taken  a  little  girl  into  the 
school,  which  she  frequented  for  four  years,  learning  perfectly  well 
to  read  and  to  write,  and  every  thing  else  that  was  taught  her, 
becoming  also  a  Christian,  and  wearing  the  warm  and  comfort- 
able dress  of  Europeans.  After  she  left  school,  she  remained  two 
years  with  the  missionaries,  and  two  years  in  the  Governor's 
house — in  fact,  seemed  perfectly  civilized.  After  eight  years, 
and  the  girl  was  then  about  sixteen,  one  morning  she  threw  off 
every  piece  of  clothing  she  had  upon  her,  and  leaving  town,  ran 
into  the  woods  to  her  tribe,  and  was  never  seen  again. 

The  Europeans  have  as  yet  discovered  no  sufficient  inducement 
to  make  the  aborigines  quit  their  savage  life ;  the  new  experi- 
ments they  are  now  making,  may  possibly  answer,  but  I  doubt 
whether  they  are  justifiable. 

Government  has  the  children  of  both  sexes  taught  and  edu- 
cated. After  they  are  grown  up,  they  are  married — not  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  laws  of  their  tribes,  by  which  a  young  man  is 
not  allowed  to  marry  till  he  has  reached  a  certain  age,  and  then 
does  not  select  a  young  girl  for  himself,  but  some  old  lady,  one  of 
the  burkas,  chooses  one  for  him.  They  are  then  brought  over  to 
Port  Lincoln,  where  they  get  a  house  and  some  land  for  a  gar- 
den or  field,  with  every  thing  they  require,  except  their  liberty — 
for  should  they  desire  to  leave  that  narrow  strip  of  land,  they 
have  to  pass  a  hostile  tribe,  which  none  of  them  would  dare  to 
do,  except  in  a  case  of  utmost  necessity. 

The  children  in  school  here  are  all  decently  dressed,  the  boys 
in  jackets  and  pantaloons,  and  the  girls  in  long  cotton  frocks  ; 
they  are  also  obliged  to  keep  themselves  clean,  that  is  cleaner  at 
least,  than  they  were  in  the  woods — but  their  noses — oh  !  their 
noses ! 

Speaking  of  the  dress  of  the  black  girls,  I  must  always  think 
of  a  young  lady  of  the  Mouleman  tribe  I  saw  in  that  region.  It 
was  a  raw  and  cold  morning,  and  in  the  tavern  where  I  had 
staid  all  night,  they  had  a  glorious  fire  in  the  chimney — break- 
fast was  ready,  and  on  the  table — that  is,  some  mutton  chops 


ADELAIDE  DISTRICT.  477 

were  broiled,  the  damper  set  on  end  against  the  wall,  and  the 
contents  of  the  tins,  pint  and  quart  cups,  were  smoking  hot 
beside  the  tin  plates,  and  sugar  had  been  put  into  the  kettle 
when  a  young  black  girl,  in  one  of  those  long  blue  frocks  all 
those  women  wear  who  are  employed  in  the  white  families,  01 
households,  entered,  and  looking  round,  walked  right  up  to  the 
fire,  to  warm  herself.  First  she  held  her  outstretched  hands 
open  over  the  flame,  turning  her  face  from  the  heat ;  then,  after 
having  been  warmed  on  that  side  sufficiently,  she  turned  round, 
and,  taking  up  her  frock  behind,  continued  standing  before  the 
fire,  and  looking  at  us — just  as  a  gentleman  might  stand  before 
a  fire-place,  with  his  coat-tails  under  his  arms,  and  his  feet  apart. 
I  do  not  like  to  appear  unpolite  toward  ladies,  but  I  really  could 
not  help  bursting  into  a  laugh — the  position  was  so  extraordinary 
— but  the  others  seemed  to  be  perfectly  used  to  it,  and  the  girl 
kept  looking  at  me,  perhaps  offended,  but  wondering  what  I  saw 
to  grin  about. 

The  English  reader  who  desires  to  know  more  of  the  aborig- 
ines, may  find,  at  least  about  the  Southern  tribes,  two  small 
tracts  which  contain  very  valuable  information.  They  are  writ- 
ten by  German  missionaries,  but  in  the  English  language  ;  the 
one  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  H.  E.  A.  Meyer,  is  called,  "Manners  and 
Customs  of  the  Aborigines  of  the  Encounter  Bay  tribe,  South 
Australia,"  and  the  other  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  C.  W.  Schiirmann,  of 
the  Lutheran  Missionary  Society,  Dresden,  "  The  Aboriginal 
Tribes  of  Port  Lincoln,  in  South  Australia ;  their  Mode  of  Life, 
Manners,  and  Customs,  &c." 

I  have  seen  a  great  many  different  tribes,  but  having  just 
come  from  a  country  where  the  Indians  were  surrounded  by  the 
beautiful  and  luxurious  vegetation  of  their  islands,  they  had 
either  made  such  a  favorable  impression  on  me,  or  I  had  con- 
tracted a  prejudice  against  these  before  I  entered  their  territories, 
hearing  such  dreadful  stories  of  blood  and  murder  about  them, 
that  I  must  acknowledge  they  did  not  please  me  at  all ;  particu- 
larly their  disgusting  uncleanliness  made  me  loath  them  from 
the  first.  By  a  ride  through  the  Pampas,  I  had  got  used  to  sim- 
ilar ways,  and  when  out  in  the  woods  and  wilderness,  a  man 
must  not  be  over  nice,  or  he  had  better  stay  away ;  but  I  have 
seen  families  and  groups  that  really,  figuratively  speaking,  turned 
my  stomach  only  to  look  at  them. 


478  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

The  tribes  in  general  do  not  seem  very  healthy,  especially  in 
the  rainy  season  when  they  are  without  any  covering,  without 
even  a  dry  place  to  sleep  in,  and  with  insufficient  nourishment ; 
sometimes  however  they  have  food  in  abundance,  when  they 
gorge  themselves  to  bursting,  at  other  times  starving  for  days, 
tying  cords  round  their  waists,  as  if  they  were  going  to  cut  them- 
selves in  two,  which  can  not  be  healthy.  A  most  extraordinary 
feature  with  them — the  reverse  is  found  among  the  islanders  of 
the  South  Sea — is  a  decline  in  the  muscles  of  the  arms  and  legs, 
both  with  men  and  women.  The  South  Sea  Islander's  legs  they 
can  scarcely  travel  with,  the  flesh  swells  so  much  under  the 
skin ;  their  neighbors,  the  Australians,  have  their  flesh  shrivel  or 
disappear  under  the  skin,  sometimes  making  one  arm  or  one  leg 
like  the  limb  of  a  skeleton,  merely  covered  with  the  black  hide. 
I  have  even  seen  in  several  cases,  men  with  both  their  legs  in  this 
way — a  skeleton  and  nothing  else — while  the  upper  part  of  their 
bodies  were  well  made  and  strong.  But  they  could  not  walk, 
they  had  to  crawl  on  the  ground,  and  seeing  them  there  with  an 
opossum  rug  thrown  over  the  decayed  limbs,  you  would  not  have 
had  the  least  suspicion  they  were  so  afflicted.  I  saw  one  of  these 
cripples  on  the  Hume,  and  it  was  a  ghastly  sight  to  watch  the 
poor  devil  crawl  on  his  hands  to  the  river,  where  he  had  a  little 
bit  of  a  bark  canoe ;  but  once  on  the  water's  edge  just  such  a 
change  came  over  him  as  over  the  gaucho  in  the  Pampas,  who 
would  walk  with  his  clumsy  spurs  as  awkwardly  over  the  sod  as 
possible,  till  he  laid  his  hand  upon  the  neck  of  his  own  steed — 
the  Indian  had  hardly  reached  the  bank,  he  was  yet  within  five 
feet  of  it,  on  a  kind  of  steep,  sandy  wall,  when  he  tumbled  him- 
self right  down  head  foremost,  as  though  rolled  up  into  a  ball ; 
and  a  fish  could  not  have  seemed  more  in  its  element  than  was 
the  cripple  from  the  moment  he  touched  the  flood. 

There  was  also  a  large  proportion  of  blind  men,  not  so  many 
women,  among  the  tribes — this  seems  a  curse  for  the  poor  devils, 
and  must  be  caused  by  the  heat  and  dust  in  summer,  which,  with 
the  flies,  particularly  in  the  Murray  plains,  are  insupportable. 
The  shepherds  over  there  told  me  many  a  time,  if  I  had  under- 
taken that  journey  in  the  dry  season,  I  must  have  had  to  stop  all 
day  and  travel  all  night,  or  I  could  not  have  stood  it.  The  most 
extraordinary  and  impudent  kind  of  small  flies  they  have  in  Aus- 
tralia, and  if  they  alight  on  your  face,  and  they  always  do  that, 


ADELAIDE"  DISTRICT.  479 

you  may  give  up  attempting  to  drive  them  away — no,  indeed, 
they  are  not  so  easily  frightened  ;  you  must  kill  them  on  the 
spot,  or  wipe  them  off,  or  they  will  not  leave.  This  matter  gets 
more  disgusting  when  you  hear  from  the  settlers  that  the  blacks 
are  the  cause  of  their  boldness,  because  they  never  drive  them 
away  ;  and  you  see  these  dirty  rascals  walk  about  with  the  lower 
part  of  their  faces  completely  covered  with  these  flies.  It  is 
shocking  ! 

The  blacks — and  the  old  ones  pride  themselves  not  a  little 
upon  a  large  growth — wear  their  beards  ;  and  some  have  really 
a  beautiful  crop  of  hair.  When  they  have  well-shaped  beards  it 
looks  well,  for  their  hair  is  soft  and  curly — very  unlike  the  wooly 
crop  of  the  negroes  ;  but  if  they  are  deformed,  it  gives  them  a 
frightful  aspect.  One  magnificent  specimen  of  an  old  man  I  saw 
once  on  the  Murray — he  was  perfectly  naked,  stout-limbed  and 
well-made  ;  his  small  long  shield,  formed  of  a  roughly  carved 
and  a  nearly  canoe-like  piece  of  wood  was  in  his  left,  and  a 
short,  dangerous-looking  war-club  in  his  right  hand — on  his  arms 
and  breast  were  the  dreadful  marks  of  Australian  tattooing — large 
scars  which  are  made  artificially  by  keeping  the  wounds  open — 
but  his  beard  was  the  most  extraordinary  thing  about  him.  It 
not  only  grew  on  his  face  as  with  the  white  men,  but  over  the 
upper  part  of  his  breast  and  down  his  shoulders  nearly  to  where 
the  shoulder-blades  end.  It  made  him  look  as  if  he  wore  a  kind 
of  fur-collar.  He  was  the  most  splendid  specimen  of  an  Austra- 
lian Indian  I  had  ever  seen. 

The  most  lively,  active,  and  well-formed  blacks  I  have  found 
on  the  upper  parts  of  the  Murray ;  they  are  also  the  most  war- 
like and  murderous  ;  and  their  weapons  show  greater  variety,  and 
are  more  dangerous  than  those  of  the  Southern  tribes.  Below 
Lake  Bono,  but  principally  from  the  northwest  bend,  the  only 
weapon  in  the  hands  of  these  tribes,  was  a  spear  eight  and  nine 
feet  long,  which  they  throw,  it  is  true,  with  great  dexterity  ;  but 
it  never  can  be  such  a  dangerous  weapon  as  the  short  spears  of 
the  Northern  tribes,  of  which  each  carries  four  or  more. 

Though  it  is  commonly  said  the  tribes  do  not  ftavel  at  night, 
some  distance  further  down  the  Murray  I  have  noticed  them,  in 
moonlight  nights,  hunt  the  worn-bat,  a  small  kind  of  badger,  or 
ground-hog  ;  but  probably  those  night-hunters  were  sorcerers, 
who  knew  better  than  to  believe  the  tales  they  told  others. 


480  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

The  most  numerous  tribe  left,  and  they  are  likely  to  be  undis- 
turbed in  their  possessions  and  hunting-grounds,  are  the  Malley 
blacks,  or  Worrigels,  as  they  are  called  by  other  tribes  on  the 
Murray.  They  live  entirely  in  the  malley  bushes,  chasing  the 
emu,  kangaroo,  and  walloby ;  and  have  no  water.  But  the 
roots  of  the  malley  supplies  them  with  all  they  need  for  drink- 
ing ;  for  washing  they  never  use  a  drop.  It  seems  grease  an- 
swers with  them  as  water  with  us.  In  hot  weather  they  are 
said  to  be  perfectly  mad  sometimes  after  grease,  to  rub  their 
skins  with.  Several  whites  that  had  tasted  the  water  from  the 
malley  roots,  told  rne  it  was  sweet  and  cool ;  in  some  species  it 
was  of  a  slight  reddish  color  ;  in  another,  almost  as  clear  a.s 
spring-water. 

These  Malley  blacks  are  a  wild  and  dangerous  mob,  and  hardly 
ever  mix  with  the  other  blacks. 

There  is  no  place  more  notorious  for  these  abominable  cus- 
toms than  the  neighborhood  of  the  Murrumbidgee,  Swan  Hill,  and 
Darling,  and  all  over  that  country  ;  also  down  to  Lake  Bono  and 
below  it,  but  in  a  modified  form.  At  their  burials,  these  South- 
ern tribes  have  only  a  kind  of  ceremony — a  sham  battle,  but 
with  the  condition  of  blood  flowing.  Somebody's  blood  must  be 
spilled,  be  the  wound  ever  so  small.  Even  mothers,  when  their 
babies  die,  receive  three  wounds  on  the  head,  out  of  which  blood 
must  flow. 

These  tribes  apparently  have  no  religion  ;  at  least,  no  God,  or 
powerful  Great  Spirit,  who  is  doing  good  to  the  tribes.  They 
have,  however,  several  evil  spirits,  who  are  slipping  about  in  the 
dark,  and  playing  the  very  devil  with  any  of  the  poor  blacks  they 
can  get  into  their  power.  Some  tribes*  call  the  devil  "  tow;" 
which  they  also  call  the  white  men,  showing  plainly  enough  what 
they  thought  of  the  latter,  when  they  first  entered  their  country  ; 
and  as  it  seems  by  their  continued  use  of  the  word,  their  opinion 
is  unaltered. 

Lutko  means  in  their  language,  as  with  us  frequently,  shade 
and  soul.  But  talking  of  their  language,  it  is  rather  a  difficult 
thing  to  say  what  they  call  this  or  that ;  for  nearly  every  tribe 
has  a  different  language ;  which  is  sometimes  not  alike  even  in 
the  roots.  They  have  some  traditions  about  the  reasons  of  this 
difference  ;  but  these  are  so  confused  as  to  leave  it  a  mere  matter 
of  superstition.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Meyer  has  the  following  account : 


ADELAIDE  DISTRICT.  481 

"  Languages  originated  from  an  ill- tempered  old  woman.  In 
remote  time  an  old  woman,  named  Wurruri,  lived  toward  the 
east,  and  generally  walked  with  a  large  stick  in  her  hand,  to 
scatter  the  fires  round  which  others  were  sleeping — [a  very  dan- 
gerous practice  for  them,  as  the  reader  will  recollect,  since  they 
believed  they  are  given  up  as  a  prey  to  all  the  monsters  of  the 
night,  when  their  fires  are  out].  Wurruri  at  length  died. 
Greatly  delighted  at  this  circumstance,  they  sent  messengers  in 
all  directions  to  give  notice  of  her  death.  Men,  women,  and 
children  came,  not  to  lament,  but  to  show  their  joy.  The  Ram- 
irijerar  were  the  first  who  fell  upon  the  corpse,  and  commenced 
eating  the  flesh,  and  immediately  began  to  speak  intelligibly. 
The  other  tribes  to  the  eastward  arriving  later,  eat  the  contents 
of  the  intestines,  which  caused  them  to  speak  a  language  slightly 
different.  The  northern  tribes  carne  last,  and  devoured  the  intes- 
tines and  all  that  remained,  and  immediately  spoke  a  language 
differing  still  more  from  that  of  the  Raminjerar." 

They  do  believe  in  an  existence  after  death,  but  seem  to  think 
this  to  be  like  an  awakening  from  sleep  or  stupor ;  returning  in 
the  new  life  to  all  their  old  habits.  About  the  place  where  they 
go  to,  they  also  differ — some  affirm  that  it  lies  to  the  west,  some 
above,  some  below,  and  some  have  their  souls  to  stay  on  trees 
among  them.  The  milky  way  of  the  southern  heavens  is  the 
smoke  of  the  camp-fires  of  some  of  their  tribes ;  as  the  stars  them- 
selves are  thought  to  be  the  different  camps,  far,  far  away. 

Mr.  Moorhouse  has  kept  a  very  interesting  journal  about  the 
tribes  which  have  been  around  Adelaide,  and  I  hope  he  will  pub- 
lish it.  It  contains  more  information  respecting  the  character  of 
the  blacks  than  could  be  found  in  the  longest  history.  He  gave 
me  permission  to  read  it,  and  copy  passages,  but  my  time  was 
too  short  to  profit  much  by  his  kindness. 

Very  interesting  to  me  were  the  accounts  of  the  children  who 
were  kept  in  school.  It  seems  to  have  been  very  hard  work  to 
make  them  remain  in  a  close  room  longer  than  a  very  short  time 
— very  few  have  come  in — some  years  more,  some  less — except 
on  her  Majesty's  birthday,  when  good  victuals  and  woolen  blankets 
were  divided  among  them,  and  then  not  one  was  absent.  On  the 
contrary,  they  brought  their  parents  and  acquaintances  also. 
Formerly  ten,  fifteen  or  twenty  children  frequented  the  school 
(when  I  visited  it,  between  thirty  and  forty),  but  on  the  Q,ueen's 

X 


482  JOURNEY  HOUND  THE  WOULD. 

birthday,  were  present:  1840,  283  blacks;  1841,  374;  1842, 
400  ;  1843,  450. 

In  1845,  the  intelligence  of  such  a  festivity  must  have  spread 
extraordinarily  through  the  country,  for  this  day  1041  Aborigines 
were  collected  in  Adelaide ;  384  from  the'  Adelaide  tribe ;  207 
from  Encounter  Bay  ;  and  450  from  "Wellington. 

"  Hundreds  of  blankets  were  divided  among  the  parents  of  the 
children  who  had  come  to  school.  On  an  average  only  nine 
boys  and  ten  gir]s  were  frequenting  school  at  that  time  ;  these 
also  only  for  a  short  period,  when  others  took  their  place. 

"  To  keep  the  children  at  the  school,  they  receive  some  rice 
and  biscuit ;  and  when  they  can  speak  and  read  correctly,  a 
blanket  and  a  dress.  Soup,  with  meat  and  peas,  is  their  favorite 
dish. 

"  In  1840,  a  law  was  passed  to  prohibit  the  whites  firing  guns 
in  sport  to  frighten  natives.  For  their  dread  of  fire-arms  dimin- 
ished when  they  frequently  witnessed  the  discharge  of  a  gun 
without  seeing  any  harm  done. 

"  In  1845,  in  December,  Nancy,  a  girl  in  Government  House, 
left  with  her  husband,  and  could  not  be  persuaded  to  stay  any 
longer.  The  latter  would  not  even  take  an  employment  in  the 
black  police.  The  girl  was  nineteen,  the  man  twenty  years  old. 

"In  1846,  the  Protector  tried  to  induce  some  parents  to  Bend 
their  children  to  school.  When  he  was  out  on  the  Murray  for 
this  purpose,  the  parents  hid  their  children  in  the  reeds,  or  took 
them  over  to  the  other  side  of  the  river.  Only  two  he  persuaded 
to  come  along  with  him,  and  they  followed  him  five  miles — 
further  they  did  not  want  to  leave  their  homes,  and  dodging 
away  into  the  bushes,  soon  disappeared. 

"  In  1848,  the  27th  of  January,  a  European,  Thomas  Adams, 
was  married  by  the  deputy-registrar  to  a  girl  of  the  blacks,  called 
Kudnarto,  from  the  Flinders  Range  tribe.  It  was  the  first  case 
of  the  kind.  The  woman  received  a  section  of  reserve  land,"  I 
expect  as  an  encouragement  to  others  willing  to  step  into  the 
bonds  of  sweet  wedlock. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  the  children  in  school  of  different 
tribes,  on  account  of  the  difference  of  their  language,  are  obliged 
to  talk  English  to  understand  each  other. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

SYDNEY    IN    1851,    AND    THE    AUSTRALIAN    COLONIES. 

OUR  voyage  from  Adelaide  to  Sydney,  was,  if  not  very  short, 
for  we  had  much  head- wind  and  about  twelve  days'  passage, 
very  pleasant.  Captain  Smith,  a  gentleman  in  every  sense  of 
the  word,  and  not  of  all  captains  can  you  say  this,  had  arranged 
every  thing  with  the  greatest  comfort,  and  with  interesting  com- 
panions, these  few  days  passed  so  quickly  that  we  landed  in  Jack- 
son Harbor,  almost  before  we  really  knew  we  had  started.  It  was 
the  most  pleasant  trip  I  have  ever  made  on  sea.  But  how  did 
Sydney  look  ? 

When  I  left  this  town,  about  three  months  before,  Sydney  was 
a  lively  and  busy,  but  in  every  other  respect  quiet  and  perfectly 
reasonable  place,  in  which  I  could  not  discover  the  least  sign  of 
any  concealed  fever  or  madness.  Every  thing,  as  in  large,  well- 
arranged  machinery,  went  regularly ;  and  if  occasionally  some 
ambitious  speaker  at  an  anti-transportation  meeting,  agitated  or 
incited  some  small  part  of  the  population  for  a  few  hours,  by  tea- 
time  that  evening,  or  by  the  next  cool  morning  breeze  in  the  worst 
case,  all  was  right  again. 

When  I  landed  and  walked  up  George-street,  I  first  thought 
that  the  place  was  on  fire — people  walked  no  more,  they  ran ; 
before  almost  every  house  on  the  landing — and  the  most  of  them 
are  boarding-houses — some  drays  were  standing  loading — the 
most  conspicuous  parts  of  the  luggage  being  a  box  of  tea,  and  a 
"cradle;"  and  round  each  vehicle  a  crowd  of  persons  pressed, 
looking  at  the  things,  and  "the  happy  coves,"  who  were  about 
to  start  with  them  (the  others  would  not  be  ready  for  a  day  or 
two),  and  talking  and  arguing  about  the  last  nuggets  found. 

Further  up  in  the  street,  before  the  office  of  the  "  Morning 
Herald,"  the  largest  crowd  was  collected.  The  Robinsonean  lump 
— or  I  had  better  say  nugget — of  three  hundred  and  twenty,  or 
one  hundred  and  six  pounds  of  gold,  troy  weight,  had  just  been 


484  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

discovered.  It  was  as  if  that  piece  of  gold  had  been  a  door,  which, 
rolling  away,  suddenly  opened  to  the  astonished  multitude  an 
illuminated  Paradise.  Such  as  had  been  irresolute  what  to  do, 
"  to  be  or  not  to  be"  one  of  the  diggers,  now  shook  off  every  doubt, 
bought  a  pickax  and  the  other  instruments  necessary  for  their 
future  misery,  and  it  was  a  settled  thing. 

Before  the  office,  the  people  seemed  raving  mad  ;  the  last  paper 
had  been  pasted  up  before  the  door  upon  a  large  board — rather 
too  low  down,  and  the  crowd  pressed  around  to  read  the  account 
— each  of  the  mass — careless  to  the  extreme  what  became  of  the 
rest  of  his  body,  if  he  only  brought  his  head  into  the  pyramid  of 
skulls  which  had  formed  itself  around  this  glorious  account. 

Nearly  the  same  groups  collected  before  the  different  jeweler's 
stores  to  see  there  the  nuggets  lying  behind  the  large  panes  as  a 
kind  of  bait  for  the  multitude.  "  Look  ye,"  they  spoke  as  plain 
as  print,  "  where  we  came  from,  there  are  plenty  more ;  and  you 
stop  here  before  the  window,  your  mouth  wide  open,  and  stare  at 
me  ?  Do  you  know  that  every  minute  you  lose  down  here,  may 
cost  you  half  an  ounce  in  not  picking  up  the  lumps,  ready  for  use 
in  the  mines?"  Bless  my  soul !  how  they  run  to  engage  a  dray, 
and  pay  any  thing  that  is  asked,  only  to  get  off  the  quicker. 

Iron  ! — who  has  said  iron  was  the  world's  magnet  ?  Gold  is 
the  charm  now,  darting  its  burning  rays  over  the  world — gold  is 
the  magnet  to  which  the  needles  of  Christianity  and  Judaism 
turn  with  obedient  veneration  ;  even  the  heathens  have  caught 
the  fever,  leaving  home  and  friends — merely  "  to  see  the  ele- 
phant," as  the  Americans  used  to  say. 

In  one  word,  Sydney  was  mad  ;  you  could  not  converse  with 
any  man  in  town,  let  him  be  as  reasonable  as  possible  in  every 
other  respect,  except  on  that  one  topic,  gold.  You  went  to  a 
doctor,  and  told  him  you  were  ill ;  he  would  feel  your  pulse  and 
ask  you,  not  if  you  had  pains  in  the  head  or  any  where  else — but 
if  you  had  heard  the  last  accounts  from  the  mines.  You  met  a 
friend  in  the  street,  shook  hands  with  him,  and  asked  him  how 
he  was — "  they  have  found  another  nugget,"  would  be  his  answer. 

"  How  do  you  sell  these  oranges,  old  fellow  ?"  you  inquire  of  a 
man  who  is  running  up  the  street  at  five  knots  an  hour,  with  a 
wheelbarrow. 

"Any  price,  Sir — any,"  is  his  reply,  "it's  the  last  load,  God 
be  thanked  !" 


SYDNEY,  AND  THE  AUSTRALIAN  COLONIES.  485 

"Why  you  are  not — " 

"For  the  mines,  Sir.     God  bless  you  !" 

Our  vessel  touched  at  Sydney  to  discharge  freight,  as  well  as 
to  repair ;  the  foremast  had  to  come  out,  and  there  was  at  least 
a  couple  of  weeks  time  for  me,  and  maybe  more,  to  go  up  to 
the  diggings  and  take  a  look  at  them.  To  do  that  quickly  I 
had  again  to  take  to  the  royal  mail,  which  started  three  times  a 
week  for  the  gold  country ;  and  such  a  run  there  was  at  this 
time  for  a  conveyance,  that  they  had  raised  the  price  to  double 
the  amount,  and  you  had  to  book  your  place  a  week,  ay,  some- 
times two  weeks  beforehand,  only  to  have  the  privilege  of  risk- 
ing your  neck.  To  go  up  to  Bathurst  had  cost  four  weeks  ago, 
£l  10s.,  now  it  was  £2  5s.,  and  the  next  day  £2  10s.  After- 
ward it  rose  still  more.  Monday  I  booked,  and  for  Wednesday 
week — got  a  place. 

In  the  mean  time,  I  passed  my  days  in  Sydney  pleasantly 
enough.  At  first  I  had  to  finish  my  correspondence  for  Germany, 
and  then  I  got  acquainted  with  some  English  families  there  by 
whom  I  was  received  in  the  kindest  manner.  So  Wednesday 
came,  and  in  the  evening  at  five  o'clock  I  was  on  the  spot. 

Having  a  good  memory,  I  never  again  undertook  to  enter  the 
wagon,  but  scaling  the  top  at  the  commencement,  I  got  a  toler- 
ably good  place.  We  were  sixteen  full-grown  men  up  there,  and 
I  don't  know  how  many  inside,  but  certainly  not  less  than  eight, 
for  I  could  hear  them  scream  there  sometimes.  The  place  around 
us,  at  the  time  was  crowded  with  people  who  had  come  to  look  at 
the  "happy  dogs"  who  were  going  to  start  immediately  for  the 
nuggets,  while  they  had  to  wait,  poor  devils,  maybe  twenty-four 
hours  longer  before  they  could  follow. 

This  stage-coach  went  to  Paramatta.  From  there  to  Penrith 
we  got  an  immense  large  omnibus,  and  from  the  next  station  the 
open  carts  commenced.  Rattling  away  through  night  and  dark- 
ness, up  and  down  hill,  at  a  break-neck  pace,  with  so  many  per- 
sons crammed  together  in  a  shaking  spring  cart,  it  was  a  miser- 
able ride ;  but  still  we  moved  along  at  a  very  good  rate,  and  did 
not  care  much  for  the  rest. 

In  the  night,  we  passed  a  great  many  camp-fires,  and  saw  every 
where  on  the  road  the  white  covered  wagons  of  the  "  gold  diggers" 
standing,  bound  for  the  "holy  land," — as  my  old  fellow-passenger 
of  the  Adelaide  mail-cart  called  it.  Nine  o'clock  next  morning 


486  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

we  met  four  men  returning  from  the  diggings ;  and  you  may  think 
how  eagerly  the  rnail-passengers  hailed  them  to  hear  the  news. 
But  the  men  seemed  already  knocked  up  always  with  answering 
the  same  question,  and  gave  only  very  short  accounts  to  get  rid  of 
them.  Of  course,  every  thing  was  good  up  there,  and  the  whole 
cartful  was  now  in  the  best  spirits.  Hurrah  for  the  mines — 
and  hard-work  !  Bah  !  they  had  known  that  before — that  was 
nothing.  If  there  was  only  gold  there,  they  did  not  care  for  the 
rest.  Blessed  California  !  I  was  in  for  it  again. 

That  morning  we  reached  Mount  Victoria,  and  here,  I  found 
more  magnificent  scenery  than  I  had  ever  before  seen  in  Austra- 
lia. Mount  Victoria  is  a  tolerable  high  mountain,  running  down 
steep  and  picturesque  on  three  sides  into  deep  and  narrow  valleys, 
which  stretch  far  out  to  where  other  ridges  bound  the  horizon. 
The  vegetation  is,  of  course,  the  same  as  every  where  else ;  gum 
trees — nothing,  but  everlasting  gum  trees  ;  and  these,  with  their§ 
same  monotonous  dull  green  color,  spoiled  the  look  of  every  land- 
scape ;  but  here,  where  there  was  a  grea.ter  distance  to  overlook, 
these  mountains  forming  the  background  and  the  side-scenes,  had 
received  another  coloring,  and  even  the  gum  trees  another  aspect : 
you  forgot,  while  looking  at  the  dark  blue  and  shadowed  slopes  of 
the  rough  mountains  in  those  beautiful  varying  tints,  the  vege- 
tation which  covered  them.  There  was  a  pleasant  variety  in 
the  whole — a  difference  as  if  our  old  friends  the  gum  trees  had 
hid  themselves  in  the  transparent  mists  of  the  mountain,  to  paint 
their  cheeks  with  the  rosy  hues  of  the  rising  sun. 

The  road,  passing  here  over  a  large  dam-like  wall,  divides,  with 
a  high  and  steep  peak  opposite,  the  valleys  in  two  nearly  equal 
halves  ;  and  to  your  right  hand,  the  eye  rests  with  pleasure  upon 
the  white  houses  and  habitations  of  busy  humankind  far  below 
you ;  while  to  your  left,  the  wilderness  lies  unbroken  and  unpro- 
faned. 

Unprofaned  !  The  coachman  told  us  a  story  of  Mount  Victoria, 
that  curdled  the  blood  in  my  veins.  Passing  the  highest  peak, 
which  rose  up  from  out  the  dark  valley,  with  its  colossal  sharp- 
broken  and  wall-like  masses  of  rock — the  upper  point,  overhang- 
ing the  quiet  rustling  forest — he  said,  turning  around  to  us,  and 
pointing  with  his  whip  to  the  rock  : 

"  That  there  is  the  very  point  from  which  that  young  cove 
jumped  down." 


SYDNEY,  AND  THE  AUSTRALIAN  COLONIES.  487 

"And  wherefore?"  nearly  every  body  asked. 

"  Oh  !  they  said  he  hadn't  been  quite  right  in  his  head." 

One  of  the  passengers,  who,  I  suspect  had  seen  more  of  the 
country  than  he  would  have  been  willing  to  acknowledge  re- 
marked : 

"It  is  a  good  while  ago  since  they  worked  at  this  'ere  road. 
There  was  among  the  rest  a  young  chap,  who  sat  always  moping 
by  himself,  arid  never  would  mingle  with  the  rest  of  the  gang. 
Of  course, -only  the  'Government  men'  did,  at  that  time,  the 
public  works ;  and  none  of  them  liked  the  young  fellow,  for  he 
didn't  suit  them  ;  and  the  overseer  sometimes,  if  he  (the  boy)  had 
his  '  moping  humor,'  as  he  called  it,  whipped  him,  so  as  to 
strip  the  skin  off  his  bapk.  One  morning,  when  he  had  done,  I 
forget  now  what,  arid  received  more  than  his  usual  quantity  of 
lashes,  he  disappeared  suddenly ;  and  the  men,  working  right 
back  there  on  the  road,  saw  him  come  out  on  that  very  point  over 
there,  hardly  three  hundred  yards  distant  from  the  road.  The 
overseer,  of  course,  halloed  over  to  him  to  come  back  directly, 
and  go  to  work,  or  '  he'd  get  another  breakfast ;'  but  the  crazy 
one — for  he  must  have  been  out  of  his  senses — shook  his  head 
slowly,  then  lifted  up  his  hands,  and  cried  so  loud,  we  could  un- 
derstand every  word  of  it — '  God  have  mercy  upon  my  soul — 
God  bless  you  all  !'  arid  then — and  then  he  took  the  leap,  and 
we  could  hear  him  strike  the  ground  below." 

"  And  was  he  dead  ?"  one  of  the  passengers  asked. 

"  Dead  !"  the  old  fellow  repeated  ;  and  his  rough  frame  shud- 
dered inwardly,  as  he  thought  probably  of  the  mangled,  crushed 
body  of  the  unhappy  boy. 

"  Right  here  from  this  bridge,  two  have  also  tumbled  down 
lately,"  coachy  added,  to  let  us  have  a  second  pleasant  story, 
"  over  the  balister  !  Yes,  of  course,  right  here,  where  them  low 
bushes  stand.  They  were  two  fellows,  who  marched  together  to 
Bathurst :  on  the  road,  they  got  up  a  quarrel  betwixt  them,  and 
just  here — they  couldn't  have  chosen  a  worse  place — they  com- 
menced to  box  and  wrestle,  tumbling  down  finally,  both  together 
into  the  gully  there.  One  was  dead  on  the  spot ;  and  the  other, 
I  believe,  only  broke  his  arm  and  his  leg ;  but  most  probably  he 
died  afterward  also." 

"  No,"  said  one  of  the  passengers — a  pale,  dark-looking  fellow  ; 
"  that  was  me  !" 


488  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

We  all  looked  at  the  man  ;  but  the  coachman,  at  this  minute, 
gave  the  whip  to  the  horses.  The  road  led  down  the  steep  mount- 
ain slope,  and  away  we  rattled  at  such  a  rate,  we  all  thought 
every  minute  something  must  break  ;  sending  us,  in  that  case, 
down  the  precipice,  which  was  yawning  close  on  each  side  of  us. 
If  something  had  happened  in  that  minute  to  the  wagon,  I  would 
not  have  given  a  penny  for  all  our  lives  ;  but  a  kind  Providence 
watched  over  us,  and  we  reached  safely  the  valley  and  the  house 
where  we  were  to  take  dinner. 

The  road  from  here  looked  as  if  we  were  going  to  a  fair — every 
where  these  carts,  sometimes  drawn  by  oxen,  sometimes  by  horses  ; 
but  all  were  heavily  loaded  with  all  kinds  of  tools,  provisions,  and 
other  goods,  accompanied  by  crowds  of  men,  and  even  of  women 
sometimes.  Here  and  there  we  overtook  caravans  at  their  camp, 
impatient  to  start,  though  the  cattle  could  not  be  found.  The 
air  was  clear  and  balmy,  arid  all  we  passed  seemed  in  excellent 
spirits. 

That  afternoon,  going  down  a  steep  hill  at  the  old  break-neck 
pace,  we  broke  our  shaft ;  but  fortunately,  though  cracking  when 
we  just  had  passed  the  top  of  the  ridge,  it  only  snapped  off  when 
we  reached  the  more  level  road,  or  we  should  have  come  down 
by  the  run.  We  had  to  walk  from  here  four  rniles,  till  we  came 
to  a  place  where  we  could  get  another  shaft  fitted  in. 

This  evening  after  sun-down,  we  reached  Bathurst,  in  a  rather 
barren  plain  ;  there  were  some  cultivated  parts  about,  but  in  gen- 
eral the  land  seemed  far  more  fit  for  pasture  than  for  tillage. 
Still,  we  had  passed  some  very  fertile,  and  in  fact,  well  cultivated 
valleys.  Several  of  us  stopped  at  the  Royal  Hotel,  in  Bathurst, 
the  best  in  the  town,  kept  by  a  Mrs.  Blake  ;  and  the  only  conver- 
sation on  that  whole  blessed  evening  turned,  of  course,  around 
that  one  point — gold.  The  most  interesting  person  in  the  crowd 
was  an  English  Jew,  who  spoke  in  the  most  mysterious  manner 
of  a  place  he  had  discovered,  where  the  gold  lay  no  more  in  nug- 
gets, no,  in  layers  and  solid  blocks,  and  the  precious  stones  any 
body  could  pick  up  around  there,  like  bricks  around  a  kiln  !  His 
hearers  listened  to  him  with  open  mouths,  as  if  they  considered 
him  a  prophet ;  and  a  few  tolerable  good-looking  nuggets  he  had 
in  his  pockets  and  exhibited,  completed  his  triumph.  Oh,  Cali- 
fornia ! 

There  was  a  mail-cart  going  from  here  to  the  Turon,  but  every 


SYDNEY,  AND  THE  AUSTRALIAN  COLONIES.  489 

place  in  it  was  taken,  of  course,  for  the  next  three  or  four  days. 
The  distance,  however,  not  being  more  than  about  twenty-five  or 
twenty-eight  miles,  I  started  next  morning  early  with  two  other 
passengers,  who  had  come  up  with  me  from  Sydney,  and  taking 
a  narrow  path,  which  led  through  the  wood  in  a  comparatively 
straight  direction,  we  soon  left  all  the  wagons  or  carts  behind, 
which  we  found  working  up  and  down  the  hills,  when  we  came 
farther  on  into  the  main  road  again.  One  of  my  companions  was 
a  stout  little  fellow,  but  he  could  not  walk ;  down  hill  he  went 
tolerably  well,  always  with  a  rush  and  going  ahead  a  pace,  as  if 
he  could  not  hold  back  ;  but  up  hill  he  wanted  steam,  and  was 
puffing  away  behind  after  we  had  reached  the  top,  sometimes  half 
an  hour.  Not  to  leave  him  behind,  we  slackened  our  pace  a  good 
while  ;  but  it  would  not  do,  and  we  had  to  give  him  up  at  last. 

My  other  companion,  also,  seemed  to  me  rather  a  stout  portly 
person  ;  but  toward  the  middle  of  the  day,  when  the  sun  came 
up  warm,  the  sweat  stood  upon  his  brow  and  he  told  me,  at  last, 
he  must  stop  and  take  off  some  of  his  shirts  !  Some  of  his  shirts  ! 
You  ought  to  have  seen  that  man  peel :  first  he  threw  down  two 
pairs  of  woolen  double  blankets  he  had  carried  upon  his  shoulders, 
then  he  pulled  off  three  woolen  shirts,  having  left,  as  he  assured 
me,  only  two — one  woolen  over-shirt  and  an  under  one.  Of  pan- 
taloons he  only  wore  three,  of  which  he  would  not  take  off  any, 
for  fear  of  catching  cold  ;  but  a  pair  of  stockings  and  a  pair  of 
socks  he  pulled  off,  leaving,  as  he  said,  only  one  pair  of  woolen 
stockings  and  one  pair  of  cotton  socks.  He  also  took  away  a  large 
woolen  comforter,  tied  closely  round  his  neck — I  do  not  know  how 
many  kerchiefs  he  wore  below  it.  He  now  became  quite  thin ; 
had  he  stripped  entirely  I  felt  inclined  to  doubt  that  there  would 
have  been  any  thing  left. 

Close  to  the  Turon  we  camped.  Next  morning  we  heard,  in 
some  steep  gully,  the  first  sounds  of  the  cradles.  I  could  see  the 
miners  far  below  ;  they  had  no  running  water,  and  were  merely 
washing  in  little  pools.  But  I  could  not  lose  my  time  by  go- 
ing down  ;  I  knew  where  I  should  find  more  of  them.  Two 
hours  afterward,  I  reached  the  last  ridge  of  the  Turon;  before 
me  I  had  the  "  golden  valley,"  and  the  gum  trees  only  convinced 
me  some  evil  spirit  had  not,  in  a  wild  and  reckless  frolic,  carried 
me  back,  against  will  and  inclination,  to  California.  There  was 
the  same  life,  the  same  pressing  and  running,  the  same  efforts, 


490  JOURNEY  HOUND  THE  WORLD. 

the  same  trials,  the  same  results.  And  there  lay  the  Turon — a 
small,  muddy  creek,  the  golden  aim  thousands  were  striving  at — 
the  new  Australian  El  Dorado ;  the  place  which  seemed,  for  all 
those  thousands  who  were  trudging  along,  heavy  loaded,  the  long 
weary  road,  to  possess  a  golden  lustre,  that  was  to  shed  a  heav- 
enly light  on  all  their  pains  and  hardships. 

But  how  about  El  Dorado  ?  I  had  thought  every  body  was 
striving  for  the  place,  and  I  had  hardly  reached  it  myself  when 
1  saw  hundreds,  their  blankets  and  cradles  upon  their  backs,  turn- 
ing from  it.  How  was  this  ?  New  mines  had  been  discovered, 
dear  reader,  at  some  other  place  ;  in  this  case  really  at  the 
World's  End,  as  the  spot  had  been  called  rather  humorously  by 
shepherds  and  run-keepers.  On  the  Turon,  the  mines  were  said 
in  Sydney  and  Adelaide  to  yield  extraordinarily  well.  "  Yes,  in 
some  spots  quantities  of  gold  had  been  found  ;  but  too  many  came 
here.  There  is  not  water  enough  in  some  places,  and  in  others 
too  much.  Only  to  make  scanty  wages  we  don't  like  to  work 
so  hard.  Maybe  it  is  better  at  the  World's  End,  and  we'll  try 
our  luck  there.  If  not,  the  road  back  is  riot  cut  off."  Such  were 
the  answers  I  received  from  passers  by.  And  with  this  World's 
End  the  same  game  commenced  in  Australia,  which  was  played 
over  and  over  again  in  California  every  where.  The  mines  are 
giving  the  spectacle  of  a  bee-hive — thousands  are  coming  in,  and 
as  many  flying  out ;  the  one  just  as  anxious  to  reach  the  place, 
as  the  others  are  to  leave  it :  the  hopes  they  carry,  with  excep- 
tions of  course,  being  the  same — that  the  next  place  they  reach 
may  turn  out  the  very  thing  they  have  looked  for.  On  the  foot 
of  the  hill  there  was  a  little  mining  town  standing — that  is,  a 
small  number  of  store  tents,  just  as  in  California ;  only  here  the 
Union  was  fluttering  in  the  breeze,  instead  of  the  American  Stripes 
and  Stars. 

Following  the  river  down,  I  saw  a  perfect  line  of  "  goers,"  all 
heavy  loaded  and  rather  downcast,  as  it  seemed  to  me.  The 
papers  had  told  them  that  those  were  not  satisfied  on  the  Turon, 
who  found  but  an  ounce  daily  ! — and  they  seemed  to  belong  ex- 
actly to  this  class.  But  an  ounce  !  I  had  lived  too  long  in  a  gold 
country  not  to  know  what  it  meant  to  find  an  ounce  daily.  We 
had  had  very  good  days,  and  how  very  seldom  did  we  find  an  ounce 
a  man.  But  the  newspapers  are  fond  of  sowing  gold,  while 
counting  upon  just  such  a  harvest.  There  were  many  a  Thou- 


SYDNEY,  AND  THE  AUSTRALIAN  COLONIES.  491 

sand  and  One  Night  Stories  afloat ;  I  had  not  been  but  a  very 
short  time  in  the  mines,  before  I  recognized  the  same  ups  and 
downs  as  on  the  Sacramento  and  San  Joaquim. 

Hard  labor  the  miners  had — they  were  sure  of  that  any  how, 
but  not  so  certain  were  they  of  the  golden  reward  ;  and  though 
many  of  them  found  very  rich  placers,  the  large  majority  was  just 
earning  their  living,  and  a  very  great  many  not  even  that.  But 
single  cases  were  held  up  to  the  gold-seekers  as  the  happy  results, 
and  they  were  only  too  willing  to  believe.  So  also  on  the  Turon 
very  good  paying  placers  had  been  found  ;  and  single  parties  had 
washed  out — on  the  Golden  Point,  for  instance,  and  other  bars — 
perfect  properties.  The  Turon  is  in  fact  generally  rich,  and  a 
great  many  other  mountain  streams  hold,  I  have  not  the  least 
doubt,  quite  as  much  gold ;  but  the  public  ought  not  to  be  de- 
luded by  the  quantities  that  come  down  from  the  mines,  as  to 
their  richness  in  general.  They  ought  to  consider  how  many 
hands  are  working  at  it  to  bring  that  gold  up,  and  how  much 
these  thousands  had  to  work  out  only  to  pay  their  living.  There 
were  more  than  fifteen  thousand  men  working  in  the  mines  be- 
fore I  left  Australia,  and  if  each  of  these  on  an  average  only 
made  an  ounce  per  week,  as  much  as  he  needed  for  provisions, 
tools,  clothing,  &c.  ;  all  this  going  down  with  the  weekly  mail, 
made  of  course  an  immense  show — fifteen  thousand  ounces  in 
one  pile  are  no  joke ;  but  even  then,  none  of  the  workmen  would 
at  that  rate  have  made  a  fortune.  But  while  there  were  thou- 
sands who  did  not  make  their  living,  others  did  better ;  and  in 
single  cases,  men  dug  out  in  a  few  weeks  sometimes  an  indepen- 
dent fortune,  encouraging  others  to  do  the  same ;  ay,  driving 
them  to  madness  nearly  to  secure  the  same  luck. 

A  great  many  though,  who  had  jumped  head-over-heels  into 
this  business,  soon  found  out  that  they  were  not  made  for  such 
work  and  such  a  life ;  they  could  have  earned  the  same,  or  bet- 
ter wages,  if  they  had  stuck  to  their  employment  in  Sydney; 
and  these  "  sold  their  cradles" — as  they  had  it  in  the  mines  as  a 
by-word — and  took  the  back  track.  Others  I  spoke  to,  told  me 
they  would  try  it  a  month  or  two  longer,  and  if  they  found  no- 
thing in  that  time,  they  would  quit  digging  ;  others,  again,  rather 
capricious  in  their  ideas,  swore  they  would  have  at  least  back 
from  the  mines  what  the  mines  had  cost  them,  or  die  a  trying  ; 
their  expectations  had  come  down  a  long  way. 


492  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

But  luck  is  the  main  thing  ;  there  is  no  dependence  on  any 
thing  else.  So  I  was  told  by  several  who  came  from  that  region, 
where  a  black  fellow,  like  the  former  "  Friday"  had  found  that 
giant  lump  of  gold  in  a  quartz  block,  crammed  or  grown  into  the 
roots  of  an  old  gum-tree.  Others  coming  after  him,  and  hoping 
to  find  more  such  lumps,  had  macadamized  the  whole  hill  from 
top  to  bottom,  smashing  every  quartz  block  they  could  reach  with 
their  large  sledge  hammers,  and  played  the  very  mischief  with 
every  thing  that  looked  like  a  white  rock,  without  finding  the 
least  gold,  let  alone  such  another  giant  nugget. 

But  let  the  miners  make  out  as  good  or  as  bad  a  case  as  they 
can  ;  for  Australia  this  gold  discovery  will  be  an  immense  ad- 
vantage ;  for  the  disease  of  the  colony,  the  want  of  hands,  has 
been  removed  by  this  gold  discovery,  as  suddenly  as  thoroughly. 
It  will  be  a  long  while  before  they  want  hands  in  a  country 
where  there  is  so  much  gold  ;  and  therefore  Australian  papers 
will  keep  up  the  excitement  to  the  last  ounce,"  if  it  ever  should 
give  out ;  though  there  is  no  danger  of  that,  not  at  least  for  the 
next  hundred  years. 

But  enough  of  all  thoughts  of  future  times  ;  we  live  in  an 
age  when  each  month  brings  forth  new  and  incredible  things. 
How  can  we  say  what  may  happen  next  year,  or  next  week — 
gold  is  there,  and  they  will  dig  for  it,  and  get  it  out.  But  who 
may  prosper  by  it  ?  "Who  would  do  well  to  emigrate  there  ?  Who 
not  ?  Are  different  questions — and  nobody  will  ever  answer  them 
to  the  satisfaction  of  all.  But  this  much  I  should  like  to  tell  the 
reader — and  if  he  will  not  believe  me,  I  can  not  help  it — let  him 
not  emigrate  at  all,  to  search  for  gold,  if  he  has  any  way  of  mak- 
ing his  living  decently  at  home  ;  let  him,  before  all  other  things, 
not  believe  half  of  what  he  reads  in  the  papers  about  the  dig- 
gings. The  same  state  of  things  exists  here,  in  that  respect,  as 
in  California ;  those  that  have  good  places  do  not  write  about 
them,  and  those  that  have  made  nothing  are — if  not  ashamed  to 
acknowledge  it — reluctant  to  give  long  accounts  of  their  disap- 
pointments. The  only  persons  who  in  general  really  send  ac- 
counts to  the  papers  from  the  mines,  are  merchants,  who  have 
their  goods  there,  or  are  going  to  send  them  ;  and  in  their  interest 
it  lies  of  course,  to  get  as  many  stomachs  there  for  their  provisions 
as  they  can. 

Still  immense  quantities  of  gold  have  been  found  in  the  mount- 


SYDNEY,  AND  THE  AUSTRALIAN  COLONIES.  493 

ains ;  and  men  who  are  used  to  hard  work,  men  who  have  been 
striving,  and  striving  in  vain,  maybe,  to  make  a  living  in  the  Old 
or  New  World,  as  day-laborers  and  servants;  in  fact,  all  such 
as  can  bush  it  for  a  time,  have  good  constitutions,  and  can  not 
lose  any  thing  by  it,  if  they  in  reality  only  make  their  living  for 
a  long  while,  trusting  to  chance  to  strike  occasionally  on  a  good 
place — all  such  may  go — all  such  will  also  be  satisfied,  at  least 
for  a  little  while,  in  the  mines,  and  such  in  fact  are  the  very 
men  wanted  for  those  places. 

The  reader  may  remember  at  the  same  time,  if  he  should  think  I 
am  painting  those  golden  countries  in  too  dark  colors,  that  things 
are  here  exactly  the  same  as  they  are  in  the  Old,  and,  in  fact,  in 
every  part  of  the  world.  Those,  who  in  any  kind  of  business  or 
handicraft  do  the  common  or  chief  work — the  workmen  for  an 
architect,  the  sailors  on  board  a  merchant-vessel,  the  laborers  on 
a  farm,  the  printers  in  an  office,  ay,  even  the  writers  themselves, 
commonly — have  the  least  profit  by  the  flourishing  of  the  whole ; 
while  those  who  furnish  the  material,  and  conduct  the  business, 
are  the  men  who  earn  the  real  profit — the  workmen  only  live  by 
it.  It  is  so  here  with  the  mines.  Those  who,  in  the  sweat  of 
their  brows,  work  and  toil  in  digging  holes  and  washing  the 
ground,  will,  with  exceptions  though,  have  the  least  profit ;  but 
the  merchants,  I  mean  the  traders  with  provisions  and  other 
goods,  the  sly  grog-sellers — for  there  are  no  licenses  given  in  the 
mines — the  mail  contractor,  the  cart-men  and  wagoners,  and  in 
fact  all  who  furnish  goods,  or  stick  to  the  steady,  well-paid 
work,  will  make  money  ;  and  if  they  also  take  a  mining  trip, 
they  will  not  stay  there  long — they  know  better  ;  but  the  miners 
themselves  are  the  tools  to  get  the  gold  out,  and  the  few  who 
really  make  something  by  it,  are  hardly  more  than  a  bait  to  at- 
tract so  many  more  to  the  same  toil  and  work. 

About  the  mines  themselves,  as  they  were  at  that  time,  the 
English  reader  has  heard,  as  I  have  not  the  least  doubt,  suffi- 
cient ;  I  will,  therefore,  say  only  a  very  little  more  on  the  subject. 

Australia  had  a  great  advantage  over  California,  at  the  first 
discovery  of  the  gold,  to  have  upon  the  spot  at  the  moment  a 
regulated  state  of  society.  The  state  could  profit  by  it,  and  cer- 
tainly did,  by  giving  out  licenses  to  dig  at  thirty  shillings  a  month ; 
— that  is,  to  the  last  of  each  month ;  for  if  you  commenced  at  the 
25th,  you  had  to  pay  the  same  sum  for  the  last  five  days,  as  others 


494  JOURNEY   ROUND   THE  WOULD. 

had  done  for  the  whole  thirty.  A  great  many  tried  to  evade  this 
law,  and  the  commissioner  too,  as  long  as  possible  ;  so  working 
along  the  Turon  Creek,  as  soon  as  the  commissioner  showed  his 
face  in  the  neighborhood,  the  alarm  was  given,  they  broke  and  run, 
hiding  their  tools,  or  carrying  them  along  with  them  ;  and  the 
officer  had  many  a  fine  race  after  them.  In  fact,  they  told  a  great 
many  anecdotes  of  the  Turori  commissioner — Green,  his  name  was, 
I  believe — who,  instead  of  behaving  as  a  magistrate,  ran  after  the 
boys  like  a  constable,  if  they  wanted  to  get  away  ;  he  sometimes 
caught  them,  sometimes  not,  but  always  was  laughed  at. 

There  was  a  great  cry  in  Sydney  how  honest  people  were  at 
the  mines,  and  how  there  was  scarcely  any  case  of  theft  or  other 
crime,  but  I  saw  arid  heard  in  a  few  hours,  at  the  Turon,  enough 
to  convince  me  that  there  were  better  places  in  this  world  than 
the  Australian  Diggings,  if  a  man  was  going  to  look  for  honesty. 
The  first  night  I  camped  there  before  a  store-tent  of  a  German 
trades,  of  the  name  of  Austin  ;  somebody,  who  knew  the  exact 
place  where  he  had  his  money,  cut  a  hole  through  the  tent,  and 
pulled  out  of  it  the  blanket  in  which  the  storekeeper  had  wrapped 
his  gold-dust  and  cash,  and  disappeared  with  it  in  the  dark. 
Some  night  previously  they  had  broken  into  another  tent ;  and 
to  leave  tools  outside  in  the  holes  where  the  diggers  had  worked, 
was  just  about  as  wise  as  setting  them  down  in  a  frequented 
street,  after  dark. 

Another  case,  which  is  against  their  reputation  for  honesty,  is 
the  transport  of  gold  from  the  mines  to  town.  The  roads  are  in- 
secure, and  merchants  taking  the  gold  to  Sydney  make  good  profit 
by  it.  But  the  most  is  transported  by  the  state,  on  the  mail- 
coach,  guarded  by  well-armed  policemen  ;  highwaymen  not  being 
of  rare  occurrence.  Therefore  the  gold  has  a  far  higher  value 
in  Sydney  than  in  the  mines,  which  is  not  even  the  case  in  Cali- 
fornia, where  accidents  on  the  roads  have  happened  so  very  sel- 
dom, that  people  never  think  of  paying  a  per  cent-age  to  have 
their  gold  taken  down  to  town  for  them. 

But,  as  I  said  before,  I  really  think  this  gold  discovery  an  im- 
mense advantage  to  the  country,  and  the  inhabitants  will  not  be 
slow  in  making  use  of  it,  though  the  largest  profit  always  flows 
where  the  largest  capital  is  invested.  Diamond  can  only  be 
polished  by  diamond,  and  the  .poor  laborer  will  give  his  sweat 
without  much  more  advantage  than  keeping  himself  by  it. 


SYDNEY,  AND  THE  AUSTRALIAN  COLONIES.  495 

I  soon  got  tired  of  the  place.  Meeting  several  fellow-passengers 
from  the  "  Wilhelmine,"  I  found  them  much  of  the  same  mind ; 
several  had  left  already,  others  were  intending  to  do  so ;  and  not 
one  of  them  had  made  any  thing  yet,  but  had  spent  the  money 
he  had  brought  with  him.  I  saw  nearly  all  of  them  again  in 
Sydney  before  I  left  the  port.  Even  from  the  World's  End  I  had 
the  pleasure  to  meet  several  miners  afterward  in  Sydney,  who 
could  give  me  a  very  good  account  of  Louisen's  Creek,  as  the 
water-course  was  called  in  which  Mr.  Hargreaves,  the  discoverer 
of  the  Australian  gold,  found  a  little  private  El  Dorado. 

Next  day  I  wandered  around  the  other  little  creeks  or  gullies ; 
and  I  was  astonished  to  see  here,  as  also  on  the  Turon  River,  what 
a  different  way  the  gold  was  lying  in,  to  what  it  was  in  Cali- 
fornia. There,  the  alluvial  gold  is  found,  with  very  few  excep- 
tions, in  the  lowest  parts  of  the  gullies  and  flats,  in  the  banks  of 
the  little  creeks,  and  upon  the  lowest  layer  of  rock  or  stiff  clay, 
covered  over  with  from  two  to  ten  and  more  feet  of  earth,  gravel, 
sand  or  clay  ;  but  here  I  saw  them  take  the  very  top  soil  from 
ridges  and  hills,  to  carry  it  to  the  water  and  wash  it;  and  if  they 
went,  in  such  high  places,  farther  than  six  inches  down  into  the 
ground,  they  found  nothing  more.  On  steep  slopes,  in  the  banks 
of  the  Turon,  they  also  dug,  sliding  the  ground  down  to  the 
water's  edge  in  pieces  of  gum-bark. 

The  gold  lies,  in  fact,  all  over  these  mines,  perfectly  through 
the  ground,  from  top  to  bottom.  In  California,  taking  even  the 
richest  places,  you  will  not  find  any  of  the  precious  metal  till  you 
come  to  a  certain  depth,  as  I  said  before,  on  the  top  of  the  rocks, 
or  in  the  first  clayey  gravel  you  strike ;  but  in  these  diggings  you 
may  take  up  the  topmost  spadeful,  and  you  will  find  a  speck  or 
two  of  gold — -not  enough  to  pay  washing  of  course,  but  still  some 
gold.  So  this,  in  fact,  seems  a  new  proof  of  what  is  striking 
nearly  every  body  who  is  more  acquainted  with  the  country — 
that  Australia  is  a  newer  part  of  the  world  than  the  rest.  As 
those  vast  salt  plains  seem  to  have  risen,  at  a  very  late  period: 
out  of  the  ocean — seemingly  bottom-land  of  the  sea  lifted  to  light, 
not  having  had  time  yet  to  alter  its  character  materially — so  the 
gold,  which  has  had  time  to  settle  down  to  the  very  tops  of  the 
rocks  in  all  the  Californian  gullies,  having  been  thrown  out  here 
by  volcanic  action,  must,  after  the  rising  of  the  continent,  be  scat- 
tered through  the  soil. 


496  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

The  same  day  I  left  the  mines,  I  reached  Bathurst ;  coming 
though  in  perfect  darkness  to  the  Bathurst  river,  which  I  had  to 
wade.  Being  ready  to  swim  it  in  the  worst  case,  I  was  not  very 
careful  when  I  jumped  in,  but  fortunately  hitting  a  shallow  place, 
I  came  into  about  three  feet  of  water. 

The  scenery  had  been  far  better  this  day  than  common — at 
least  the  vegetation  assumed  a  more  cheerful  character  by  the 
help  of  a  cactus-like  bush  or  shrub,  the  wattel,  with  bright  yel- 
low, and  even  sweet-smelling  blossoms  ;  but  in  general  it  was 
the  same — gum  trees  having  decidedly  the  preference. 

Reaching  Bathurst,  I  was  in  fear  of  having  to  walk  back  to 
Sydney,  for  the  mail-coach  is  always  taken  several  days  before 
hand,  and  I  did  not  like  to  stop  any  longer  in  such  a  dear  place, 
than  Lwas  obliged  ;  fortunately  some  miner  upon  the  Turon  had 
ordered  a  place  though  he  had  not  paid  for  it,  and  on  his  failing 
to  appear  that  evening  at  ten  o'clock,  1  got  permission  to  pay 
three  pounds,  or  three  pounds  ten,  I  forget  now  which,  for  a  seat 
on  that  tormenting  box  they  call  the  royal  mail,  to  be  rattled 
down  to  Sydney. 

Royal !  If  Q,ueen  Victoria — but  no,  I  do  not  wish  her  any 
harm ;  but  if  some  of  our  gentlemen  at  home  could  take  such  a 
good  ride  once  in  a  while,  they  would  entertain  other  ideas  of 
royalty  than  those  they  now  have. 

Next  morning  we  started,  upsetting  once  only  the  whole  cargo, 
about  three  or  four  miles  before  we  reached  Penrith.  Fortunately, 
the  spot  where  we  got  spilled,  being  sandy,  we  did  not  knock  our 
brains  out,  as  most  certainly  would  have  been  the  case  had  we 
been  thrown  with  such  force  upon  a  rock  ;  so  no  bones  were 
broken,  though  some  of  us  felt  very  sore.  It  only  hurt  my  feel- 
ings, sticking  up  so  long  in  the  sand,  with  my  feet  in  the  air,  like 
a  hyacinth.  I  also  lost  a  coat,  somebody  stole  from  the  wagon 
at  Penrith,  while  I  was  leading  one  of  the  passengers  into  the 
house,  who  felt  rather  sick  after  the  fall.  Very  happy  to  have 
come  off  so  easily,  I  returned  to  Sydney  after  about  a  week's  spell 
in  the  diggings. 

In  Sydney  there  was  by  this  time  a  new  commotion  ;  not  on 
account  of  the  gold,  but  the  Californian  Lynch-law,  which  had 
touched  Australia  in  its  most  tender  feelings.  The  captain  of  a 
small  merchantman,  having  just  arrived  in  Port  Jackson,  gave 
a  most  doleful  description,  in  the  "  Morning  Herald,"  of  how  mis- 


SYDNEY,  AND  THE  AUSTRALIAN  COLONIES.  497 

erable  the  Americans  had  used  him  ;  and  he  being  an  Englishman. 
There  had  been  a  fire  in  San  Francisco;  and  while  poor  Captain 
H was  kind  enough  to  help  to  extinguish  it,  he  was  sus- 
pected, by  some  mistake,  of  being  one  of  the  ruffians,  too  common 
in  San  Francisco,  that  had  caused  the  conflagration.  He  was 
carried  before  the  Vigilance  Committee,  robbed  on  the  road  of  his 
watch  ;  in  fact,  had  been  very  badly  treated.  He  kept  complain- 
ing, through  several  numbers  of  the  paper,  of  the  insult  England 
had  received  by  this  outrage  and  robbery  of  an  Englishman. 
California  papers  arriving  at  the  same  time,  speaking  in  very 
harsh  expressions  of  the  Sydney  convicts  that  infested  their  coun- 
try, some  of  whom,  after  conviction,  they  had  hung,  did  not  soothe 
the  hostile  feelings  the  "Morning  Herald"  and  "Tribune"  had 
excited  ;  there  was,  therefore,  nothing  but  an  invasion  of  Cali- 
fornia open  to  them,  to  restore  England's  honor  and  Captain 
H 's  watch. 

On  my  return  to  Germany,  I  accidentally  met  a  friend  from 
San  Francisco,  who  had  been  a  member  of  the  Vigilance  Com- 
mittee; and  inquiring  about  Captain  H ,  learned  that  he  had 

been  discovered,  after  the  fire,  half-seas-over,  in  a  suspicious  place. 
The  Vigilance  Committee  had  freed  him  from  the  hands  of  the 
mob,  on  ascertaining  that  he  was  the  captain  of  a  vessel,  and  had 
gallantly  assisted  in  helping  to  extinguish  the  fire. 

What  I  think  of  the  California  Lynch-law,  or  of  Lynch-laws 
in  general,  in  a  wild,  wooded  country,  I  have  said  already  in 
another  place.  The  Vigilance  Committee  was  most  certainly  a 
blessing  to  the  State,  and  has  done  far  more  good  than  harm ; 
but  the  Americans  fell  into  the  same  error  as  the  Sydney  people 
fell  into  here,  in  raising  a  cry  against  the  old  convict  settlements 
of  England,  and  throwing  every  blame  before  their  door.  For 
every  crime  committed  in  California,  they  called  Australia  to 
account ;  or  sometimes  Mexicans,  particularly  in  the  mines,  when 
it  suited  their  purpose  ;  yet  they  had  not  far  to  go  to  find  men 
more  steeped  in  crime  than  any  Australian  convict  or  prowling 
Mexican. 

I  honor  the  American  citizens  :  I  have  traveled  through  their 
States,  and  lived  in  them  ;  I  have  got  acquainted  with  all  their 
virtues,  but  also  with  all  their  vices.  Having  come  to  North 
America  comparatively  a  youngster,  unable  to  speak  the  language, 
I  was  obliged  to  take  up  any  work  I  could  get,  to  make  my  liv- 


498  JOURNEY  ROUND  tEE  WORLD. 

ing — for  I  felt  too  proud  to  write  back  to  Germany  for  money — 
and  I  was,  therefore,  first  fireman  and  deckhand,  then  cook,  on 
board  the  "  Mississippi"  and  "  Arkansas"  steamers  ;  set  up  cord- 
wood  in  Tennessee,  and  worked  at  the  silversmith  business  in 
Cincinnati ;  farmed  in  Missouri ;  was  bar-keeper  and  finally  hotel- 
keeper  in  Louisiana  ;  stock-keeper  awhile  in  Arkansas  ;  and  after 
having  become  familiar  with  the  language  and  habits,  hunted 
four  years  in  the  backwoods  of  Arkansas,  principally  in  the 
Fourche  la  Fave  and  Ozark  Mountains,  and  White  and  St.  Francis 
River  swamps,  for  bears,  deer,  and  turkeys.  So  that  I  have  led  a 
wild  life  in  a  wild  country,  and  got  acquainted  there  with  all  the 
best  and  also  the  worst  characters  in  the  Union  ;  and  am  able  to 
affirm,  that  as  there  is  not  a  more  noble  and  honest  character  in 
the  world  than  those  backwoodsmen  of  America,  however  rough 
they  may  be,  there  is  also  not  a  worse  set  of  thieves  and  cut- 
throats in  creation  than  the  gamblers  and  adventurers  who  were 
at  that  time  trying  their  fortune  in  New  Orleans,  Cincinnati,  or 
the  Indian  territory,  by  gambling,  or,  if  that  would  not  do,  by 
robbery  and  murder.  They  formed  regular  bands  in  the  Western 
States,  those  murderous  troops  in  the  islands  of  the  Mississippi 
sending  their  members  up  to  the  northern  towns  to  be  hired  for 
pilots  on  board  the  flat-boats,  to  run  them  aground ;  they  infested 
the  Indian  boundary  lines,  cheating  the  poor  Indians,  and  driving 
them  often  to  desperate  deeds ;  they  formed  that  dreadful  Morrell 
Band  over  the  United  States,  nearly  all  of  whom  went  to  Califor- 
nia, at  least  for  a  while,  to  gain  money  there  in  any  way  they  could, 
except  by  working ;  and  money  they  will  gain,  if  they  have  to 
commit  murder  for  it.  All  could  have  gone,  for  they  knew  how 
to  get  money  for  the  voyage  ;  and  these  are  the  very  men  who 
travel  now  in  swarms,  not  only  through  the  towns,  but  through 
the  mines  of  California,  to  gamble  ;  and  what  they  can  not  gain 
in  this  way,  they  gain  by  highway  robbery  and  secret  murder  :  in 
short,  a  more  daring,  a  more  merciless,  a  more  cold-blooded  set  the 
world  never  beheld  ;  and  I  am  sure  very  few  Australian  convicts 
could  come  up  to  them  in  villainy. 

These  are  also  the  men  who  raise  the  loudest  cries  against 
Australia,  because  the  name  directs  suspicion  from  themselves ; 
and  though  some  felons  were  caught  at  the  commencement  of  the 
Vigilance  Committee  in  San  Francisco,  and  executed  there — they 
were  old  convicts  from  Australia,  and  deserved  their  fate — the 


SYDNEY,  AND  THE  AUSTRALIAN  COLONIES.  499 

honest  Americans  know  better  than  to  throw  the  whole  blame 
upon  that  colony,  and  would  have  hung  these  house-breakers  and 
murderers  just  as  readily  had  they  been  Americans.  San  Fran- 
cisco editors  have  as  little  savior  vivre  in  this  respect  as  Aus- 
tralian editors,  blaming  and  condemning  a  whole  nation  for  what 
a  few  rascals  have  done,  and  trying  their  best  at  the  same  time  to 
excite  hostilities.  But  Time  passes  on  in  his  old  track,  and  we 
keep  knocking  our  heads  against  his  scythe,  like  flies  against  a 
window-pane. 

On  returning  from  the  mines,  I  expected  the  "  Wilhelmine" 
would  sail  in  a  few  days,  but  was  mistaken,  for  the  vessel  had 
not  even  her  foremast  in,  and  was  lying  in  a  rather  desolate  state 
close  to  the  Patent  Slip  ;  but  my  time  passed,  notwithstanding, 
very  agreeably  in  Sydney,  not  only  in  the  captain's  company,  with 
whom  I  was  continually,  but  I  got  introduced  to  some  German 
and  English  families,  and  in  such  society  the  days  passed  rapidly. 
I  never  shall  forget  Dr.  MacKellar's  and  Mr.  Bickard's  friendly 
circle  ;  and  at  last,  when  taking  leave  of  them,  particularly  of 
Mr.  Kickard's  children,  it  was  as  if  I  had  left  my  own  home. 

Our  stay  in  Sydney  was  also  prolonged  by  the  gold  mines,  for 
the  sailors  seemed  to  prefer  going  to  the  diggings  to  sailing  to 
Batavia ;  and  one  fine  morning,  when  the  steward  called  the 
captain,  he  gave  him  a  list  of  nine  of  the  men  who  had  run  away 
in  the  morning  watch.  None  of  them  came  back  voluntarily,  and 
only  three  of  them  were  caught  by  the  water-police  and  kept  in 
prison  till  the  ship  should  sail. 

The  water-police,  as  there  was  a  good  reward  offered  for  each, 
did  its  best  to  capture  them  again.  Every  night  several  of  the 
officers  disguised,  visited  the  most  frequented  haunts  of  sailors  and 
vagabonds.  As  there  was  something  new  to  be  seen,  I  accom- 
panied them  several  times  through  the  worst  lurking-places  of  the 
town  ;  and  it  was  partly  an  interesting  though  a  most  disgusting 
sight.  What  astonished  me  most,  was  the  number  of  drunken 
women  I  observed  in  these  evenings,  not  only  in  the  different  tap- 
rooms, but  in  the  streets — to  one  drunken  man  I  could  always 
count  three  drunken  women.  It  was  really  painful  to  look  at  them. 

But  the  mines  did  not  attract  the  sailors  only,  the  actors  made 
a  rush  for  the  gold  ;  and  while  we  lay  at  Sydney,  waiting  to  get 
off,  the  best  performers  at  the  theatre  announced  their  last  ap- 
pearance on  the  stage  before  they  dispersed  for  the  diggings. 


500  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

The  play  acted  this  evening  was  Balfe's  opera,  "  The  Enchan- 
tress," under  the  distinguished  patronage  of  his  Excellency  the 
Governor-general,  Sir  Charles  Augustus  Fitzroy,  K.C.B.,  and  the 
honorable  and  lovely  Mrs.  Keith  Stewart,  his  daughter. 

The  performance  commenced  with  the  singing  of  the  National 
Anthem  (all  the  actors  and  actresses  being  in  their  costumes, 
which  looked  rather  singular — particularly  if  among  the  loyal 
singers  a  set  of  bloody  pirates  came  forward — as  in  this  opera). 
I  like  a  people  to  have  a  national  hymn — there  is  something 
great,  something  holy  in  it ;  and  if  even  it  is  a  merry  tune,  as 
the  "  Yankee  Doodle"  of  the  Americans — it  speaks  the  feeling  of 
union  of  a  whole  nation.  I  would  hear  the  Russian  hymn  with 
exactly  the  same  feeling — that  of  envy  and  sorrow  that  there  is 
not  one  for  us.  Haydn  has  composed  the  English  anthem — a 
German  had  to  write  those  sweet  and  inspiring  sounds  for  foreign- 
ers— we  had  no  use  for  them  at  home.  We  have  no  union,  no 
liberty,  and  therefore  have  no  national  hymn — none  at  least  in 
Germany  ;  but  if  liberty  can  not  give  us  a  hymn,  who  knows 
but  some  happy  thought  may  produce  one  of  those  powerful  songs 
that  drive  the  blood  through  your  veins  and  kindle  the  fire  in 
your  eyes — such  a  hymn  as  led  the  French  to  battle  and  steeled 
their  arms  and  hearts — may  give  liberty  to  us  ?  Blessed  be  the 
day  that  hears  its  first  sounds  !  As  it  is,  they  have  a  kind  of 
national  air  of  Austria,  another  to  oppose  Danish  impudence — 
another  on  the  Rhine,  and  all  kinds  of  melodies  in  Greitz,  Schleitz, 
and  Lobenstein.  If  they  come  together  ever,  they  will  never 
harmonize.  Strike  them  up  at  the  same  time — bless  my  soul ! 
what  a  discord  !  Poor  Germany  !  you'll  have  to  put  other  strings 
to  your  instruments  before  you'll  get  in  tune. 

The  first  singer,  and  the  lady  who  performed  the  principal  part 
in  "  The  Enchantress"  this  evening  was  a  Miss  Sarah  Flower,  with 
a  most  beautiful  voice,  who  was  also  a  very  good  actress.  She 
could  play  with  success  at  our  first  theatres  in  Germany.  After 
"  The  Enchantress,"  a  pretty  little  farce  was  played,  with  the 
name  of  "  Box  and  Cox,"  in  which  Messrs.  Howson  and  Hydes 
bade  farewell  to  the  public  for  a  while,  to  pay  their  respects  and 
licenses  at  the  mines. 

At  the  same  time  a  rather  singular  occurrence  brought  the 
whole  harbor,  shipping,  and  shore-people  in  commotion.  One 
fine  afternoon,  while  a  great  many  pleasure-boats  were  out  in 


SYDNEY,  AND  THE  AUSTRALIAN  COLONIES.  501 

the  bay,  and  its  shores  were  lined  with  spectators,  a  whale  en- 
tered it,  and  while  taking  a  look  at  things  in  general,  was  received 
by  some  of  the  boats  and  the  multitude  on  shore  with  such  ac- 
clamations, as  to  drive  him  bewildered  farther  and  farther  up 
the  bay.  Several  whale-ships  were  lying  at  this  time  in  the 
harbor,  and  sending  out  their  boats,  they  captured  the  poor  fellow. 

On  the  13th,  the  papers  related  the  misfortunes  of  a  gentle- 
man, who  had  been  summoned  during  the  last  quarter  sessions 
on  the  same  day  and  the  same  hour  to  attend  there  as  well  as  at 
the  supreme  court.  Being  unable  to  appear  at  both  places  at 
once,  he  had  to  miss  one.  and  the  law  condemned  him  to  pay 
the  usual  fine.  He  called  on  the  sheriff  to  represent  this  peculiar 
case,  but  the  sheriff  could  give  him  no  other  advice  than  to  bring 
out  the  cash.  Justice  is  blind,  of  course  ! 

We  were  now  getting  ready  to  put  to  sea,  in  spite  of  our  de- 
ficient crew.  Our  captain  had  managed  at  last  to  hire  three 
men  at  exorbitant  wages,  only  to  get  away  from  the  place  and 
not  lose  also  the  few  he  had  left,  and  our  cargo  was  taken  on 
board  that  we  might  get  off  at  once.  This  was  a  singular  one  : 
cows  arid  dogs.  The  first  were  driven  to  the  shore  where  we  lay 
among  other  vessels,  a  noose  fastened  over  their  horns  one  after 
another,  and  the  poor  beast  pulled  close  up  to  the  ship,  till  her 
horns  touched  a  block  fastened  there  ;  another  noose  then  being 
laid  over  her  horns — or,  when  hornless,  round  her  neck  and  one 
fore-leg,  to  keep  her  from  choking — the  word  was  given,  and  up 
she  went,  dangling  in  air  till  she  came  on  board,  and  with  the 
same  lift  run  down  into  the  hold.  They  cost  £2  10s.  each. 

We  had  also  on  board  a  lot  of  kangaroo  dogs ;  the  captain 
paying  about  thirty  shillings  on  an  average  for  them.  I  may  as 
well  say  here  what  became  of  them.  The  cows  brought  some 
profit,  but  scarcely  sufficient  for  the  trouble  they  had  caused,  a 
fifteen  days'  calm  proving  too  much  for  them ;  but  the  dogs  paid 
exceedingly  well,  the  whole — and  there  was  not  a  single  full- 
grown  kangaroo  dog  among  them — bringing  from  £5  to  ,£6. 

The  next  day  we  were  to  pass  through  Torres  Straits,  not  to 
Manilla,  as  I  had  thought,  but  to  Batavia ;  and  sorry  though  I 
was  to  leave  so  many  kind  friends,  I  was  really  glad  to  get  rid 
of  that  confounded  nugget  conversation. 

They  say  it  is  the  greatest  bore  to  hear  dreams  recounted,  but 
just  go  to  a  golden  country,  and  then  talk  of  bores. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

TORRES    STRAITS. 

MONDAY,  the  22d  of  September,  we  were  to  start ;  just  as  our 
flag  was  hoisted  from  the  main-top — a  signal  to  the  water-police 
— a  boat,  with  the  policemen  and  the  three  recovered  runaways, 
came  on  board.  The  police  searched  the  vessel  for  concealed 
sailors,  and  were  going  to  take  one  of  the  new  hands  because  the 
captain  of  his  last  vessel  had  not  given  him  any  papers.  It  was 

under  these  circumstances  Captain  A ,  who  had  corne  in, 

and  put  part  of  his  hands  in  prison  for  refusing  duty  at  sea,  was 
sued  by  the  rest  for  having  treated  them  at  sea  in  an  inhuman 
and  mean  manner.  He  had  been  a  tyrant  on  board,  and  though 
the  men  were  liable  to  punishment  for  refusing  duty,  the  magis- 
trates did  not  order  them  to  return  to  their  vessel ;  and  Captain 

A ,  where  even  good  captains  could  riot  get  hands,  was  likely 

to  have  a  fine  time  at  Sydney  before  he  could  get  away.  He 
played  our  captain  a  mean  trick,  for  having  agreed  to  the  de- 
parture of  that  sailor — who  would  not  stay  with  him  on  any 
account — now,  through  detaining  the  "  Wilhelmine,"  seeing  she 
could  not  do  without  the  man,  sought  to  extort  from  her  captain 
one  or  two  pounds  more.  He  said  that  the  sailor  owed  him 
money,  which  the  man  denied. 

But  we  got  off  at  last,  after  our  captain  had  suffered  himself 
to  be  victimized,  and  with  a  splendid  southwestern  breeze  left 
the  port,  and  soon  were  out  of  sight  of  land.  The  wind  kept 
well  till  we  eame  into  the  latitude  of  Moreton  Bay,  where  we 
met  with  calms  and  light  head- winds ;  but  Friday  evening  a 
thunder-storm  came  on  with  a  southern  breeze,  arid  that  night 
we  run  five  knots  before  the  wind,  ay,  seven  and  eight  next 
morning,  with  studding-sails  on  our  starboard,  in  the  southeast 
trades. 

The  30th  we  made  Kenri's  Reef;  being  able  to  see  it  from  the 
top-yard,  we  gave  it  a  wide  berth,  and  were  now  nearing  the 


TORRES  STRAITS.  503 

Torres  Straits.  Whoever  has  been  in  these  latitudes,  knows  what 
dreadful  stories  they  tell  about  the  dangers  of  the  navigation ; 
and,  in  truth,  many  a  good  ship  has  been  lost  there,  and  many 
a  wreck  is  lying  there  yet  high  and  dry  between  the  reefs. 
There  were  also  many  stories  about  the  merciless  and  cunning 
savages  afloat,  who  inhabit  at  times  the  different  islands  of  the 
group ;  indeed,  our  mate  was  preparing  a  parcel  of  cartridges 
for  the  two  cannons  we  had  on  deck,  to  be  ready  in  case  of  ne- 
cessity. I  took  a  more  peaceable  way  to  prepare  myself  for 
Java,  by  studying  the  whole  afternoon  the  Malayian,  and  read- 
ing the  Dutch  language,  and  time  passed  on  satisfactorily. 

Our  cows  were  at  the  same  time  not  idle  ;  one  calved  even  in 
Port  Jackson,  and  others  followed  the  good  example  so  fast,  we 
had  more  milk  than  we  could  consume  ;  and  we  ate,  after  being 
about  ten  days  at  sea,  curdled  milk  three  or  four  times  each 
week. 

The  4th  of  October  we  could  get  no  observation,  and  being 
near  the  reefs  on  the  5th,  in  the  evening,  we  tacked  ship,  and 
went  under  close-reefed  top-sails  half  the  night,  returning,  the 
other  half,  as  near  to  the  place  where  we  had  lain  last  evening 
as  we  could  guess. 

Next  morning,  keeping  straight  toward  that  part  of  the  reefs 
where  the  captain  expected  to  find  Raines'  Island,  I  was  up  in 
the  foretop,  and  saw  about  nine  o'clock  the  first  white  line  of 
breakers  bounding  the  horizon.  An  hour  afterward  we  could 
hear  them  ;  then  some  dark  object  rose  in  sight.  As  we  ap- 
proached the  place  we  recognized  the  beacon  upon  Raines'  Island, 
and  close  to  it  a  black  brig,  being  lifted,  as  it  seemed,  by  the  roll- 
ing sea,  into  the  breakers  and  reefs. 

This  island  is  only  a  long  sandy  spot,  without  any  vegetation, 
except  some  low  stunted  bushes.  The  beacon  looks  from  afar 
very  much  like  a  light-house  ;  it  is  high  and  broad,  and  easily 
discernible ;  but  on  our  coming  nearer,  it  seemed  as  if  construct- 
ed of  pieces  of  lath,  for  we  could  see  the  light  shine  through.  On 
the  southern  part  of  the  island  there  were  some  small  and  low- 
roofed  huts,  erected  most  probably  by  the  shipwrecked  people  ; 
but  though  we  held  our  course  farther  up  than  we  ought  to  have 
gone,  to  see  if  there  were  any  signs  of  living  men  about,  nothing 
of  the  kind  could  be  observed.  We  were  near  enough  to  the  isl- 
and to  have  seen  a  dog  run  on  the  white  sand,  but  nothing 


504  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

moved  ;  and  though  the  brig  looked  as  if  the  crew  had  only  just 
left  her,  for  her  fore-topsail  was  still  flying,  and  the  mainsail  was 
loose,  there  was  no  one  either  on  board  of  her  or  on  shore  ;  and  our 
captain  not  wishing  to  run  too  far  north,'  as  there  is  a  powerful 
current  to  the  northwest,  we  left  the  wreclc  to  its  fate,  and  made 
for  the  entrance. 

The  entrance  at  this  island  is  considered  one  of  the  best ;  and 
vessels  run  right  between  it  and  the  southern,  or  large  reef,  hug- 
ging this  reef  south  from  the  island.  There  is  a  wide  passage, 
as  close  as  possible,  for  the  dangers  of  it  are  clearly  visible  above 
water,  and  there  is  hardly  any  bottom  found  to  the  very  edge. 
This  reef  takes  the  vessel  in  nearly  a  northwestern  direction  into 
the  Torres  Straits ;  and  on  entering,  she  can  drop  her  anchor  on 
the  approach  of  night,  and  be  out  of  danger,  there  being  nearly 
every  where  around — rapidly  as  you  have  run  up  the  great  reef, 
a  certain  distance — from  five  to  fifteen  fathoms  of  water. 

This  place,  however,  must  be  navigated  in  a  different  manner 
from  the  open  sea.  On  entering  it,  the  captain  or  mate  must  be 
up  on  the  fore-top-gallant  yard  with  his  telescope  and  chart, 
trusting  to  his  eye  for  nearly  the  entire  management  of  the  ship. 

Passing  a  couple  of  places  with  very  green  water — one  of  two 
fathoms,  and  one  marked  as  a  rock  on  the  newest  chart,  proba- 
bly reaching  over  water  in  low  tide — we  sighted  to  larboard  the 
Ashmore  Bank,  a  small,  short  strip  of  sand,  and  to  starboard  the 
Middle  Bank  ;  ugly  places  in  rough  and  misty  weather,  of  sand 
and  rocks,  stretching  along  in  a  small  light-green  stripe,  and  even 
visible  here  and  there  above  water. 

Right  before  us  now  rose  the  first  higher  land,  the  Hardy's  Is- 
lands— two  small  and  barren  islands,  which  we  left  to  larboard, 
steering  now  for  the  northern  reefs  of  the  Cockburn  Isles.  I  was 
up  in  the  yards  the  whole  day  with  the  captain,  watching  the 
wild  scenery  of  breakers  and  rocks  around  us,  hoping  to  reach  by 
the  next  night  one  of  the  islands,  where  we  could  land  and  see 
something  of  these  far-feared  islanders. 

The  Cockburn  group  consists  of  three  little  isles,  surrounded 
by  a  long  line  of  reefs,  and  we  could  have  easily  followed  the 
outward  edge  of  these,  but  for  the  sun,  which  was  just  setting  in 
the  west,  and  throwing  such  a  mingled  light  of  varied  colors  over 
the  water,  as  to  make  it  extremely  dangerous  to  proceed.  The 
current  took  us  at  the  same  time  to  the  northward,  and  suddenly 


TORRES  STRAITS.  505 

we  were  in  perfectly  bright-green  water,  with  only  three  or  four 
fathoms  below.  Q,uickly  we  tacked,  and  reaching  deeper  sea 
again,  run  up  as  close  as  we  dared  to  the  reefs  on  our  larboard, 
whence  the  current  was  setting,  and  dropped  our  anchor. 

The  mate,  after  the  sails  were  fastened,  loaded  his  cannons, 
and  prepared  every  thing  for  an  attack,  though  1  did  not  see 
from  what  quarter  it  could  be  expected,  at  least  for  this  night. 

We  had  caught,  during  the  day,  several  excellent  fish,  weigh- 
ing from  about  ten  to  twenty  pounds,  and,  through  the  entire 
straits,  had  as  much  fish  as  we  could  eat  every  meal.  I  beheld 
a  most  singular  creature  of  the  fish  kind  that  morning,  just  after 
we  had  entered  the  channel.  I  was  up  on  the  fore- top-gallant 
yard  with  the  captain,  and  there,  where  the  reefs  were  closest,  I 
saw  a  monster,  of  a  fish,  about  five  or  six  feet  broad,  and  two 
and  a  half  or  three  feet  long,  in  the  shape  of  a  butterfly,  or  short 
winged  bat,  just  before  our  bow,  sleeping  in  the  water  as  it 
seemed,  and  flapping  away  with  its  wing-like  fins,  as  the  broad 
bow  of  the  vessel  nearly  touched  it.  It  went  toward  the  reefs, 
where  it  disappeared.  I  afterward  heard,  from  another  German 
captain,  in  Batavia,  that  he  had  met  with  just  such  an  ani- 
mal near  Samarang,  the  first  he  had  seen  since  he  had  been  at 
sea,  twenty-five  years.  Afterward,  I  heard  a  description  of  a 
large  fish  called  the  diamond  fish,  which  was  most  likely  this 
monster. 

The  7th,  with  daybreak,  we  again  weighed  our  anchor,  and 
were  setting  sail  with  a  light  but  steady  breeze.  Islands,  reefs, 
rocks  and  bars,  within  sight,  affording  very  little  interest,  though 
it  is  a  matter  of  surprise,  how  these  coral-banks  can  have  grown 
out  of  such  an  immense  depth,  sometimes  rising  perfectly  perpen- 
dicular out  from  the  bottom  of  a  nearly  fathomless  sea  to  the  sur- 
face. So  are  several  places  marked  in  the  chart,  where  vessels 
run  aground — one  of  them  a  perfect  reef,  with  two  hundred  and 
sixty  fathoms  just  behind,  and  to  starboard  and  larboard  with 
better  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  fathoms. 

These  coral  formations,  are,  in  fact,  the  most  singular  natural 
curiosities  in  the  world ;  and  though  there  are  doubts  existing, 
yet  if  the  coral  is  not  a  real  plant,  growing,  as  its  form  also  indi- 
cates, from  out  of  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  inhabited  like  trees — on 
which  birds  build  their  nests,  or  choose  holes  for  their  habitations — 
by  the  small  coral  insect ;  instead  of  being  exclusively  the  struc- 

Y 


506  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

ture  of  the  insect.  I  think  the  former  the  most  probable,  though 
there  are  many  things  that  speak  for  the  latter. 

The  formation  of  the  coral  tree  itself,  bespeaks  an  independent 
growth,  and  the  strength  with  which  the  whole  mass  rises  per- 
pendicularly out  of  the  nearly  fathomless  Depths,  shows  a  kind  of 
inward  life,  which  goes  through  the  whole,  from  top  to  bottom, 
and  could  hardly  be  expected,  if  that  immense  steeple-like  mass 
consisted  of  nothing  else  but  single  insects,  if  their  houses  had  the 
strength  even  of  oyster-shells.  But  this  being  only  a  single  opin- 
ion, I  give  it  as  it  struck  me  when  I  saw  those  immense  walls 
rise  from  out  the  blue  deep,  while  the  breakers  rolled  and  dashed 
vainly  against  their  apparently  weak,  yet  rock-like  masses,  unable 
to  break  them,  but  rooting  them  more  firmly  in  the  ground. 

The  scenery  around  us  looked  rather  unpromising.  To  lar- 
board we  had  the  small  Arthur's  Islands,  Hannibal's  three  little 
knobs  ahead,  and  to  starboard,  the  scrubby  bushes  grown  over 
Boydong  Rays,  and  a  little  bushy  island  behind.  Farther  on 
there  were  the  Cairncross  Islands,  with  the  background  of  the 
northern  coast  of  Australia,  stretching  out  in  low  undulating  hills 
as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach.  Finding  there  another  good  an- 
chorage for  the  night,  I  had  entertained  hopes  that  we  should 
have  reached  the  spot  by  day-time,  so  as  to  have  visited  the  isl- 
and ;  but  before  we  had  fastened  our  sails,  it  got  perfectly  dark. 
In  spite  of  that,  the  mate  and  I  determined  to  go  ashore,  and  see 
at  least  what  kind  of  vegetation  there  was — the  mainland  being 
too  far  off  to  fear  coming  upon  the  natives. 

The  small  island  looked  picturesque  enough  from  afar,  with 
the  dim  light  of  the  moon  shed  over  it ;  the  dark-green  bush,  and 
the  white  sand  and  coral  reefs  around,  while  some  red,  glistening 
fires,  shone  over  from  the  dark  mainland  rather  threateningly. 
There  were  cannibals  living,  and  I  thought  of  Robinson  Crusoe. 
But  I  had  no  need  to  go  back  so  far  for  adventurous  remem- 
brances. Here  was  I,  desirous  of  landing  on  a  dark,  unknown 
coast :  who  knew  not  if  this  little  spot  was  inhabited,  and  if  we 
were  not  watched  from  behind  these  low,  dark  bushes,  by  grim 
and  hostile  visages  ;  and  if  there  were  not  mouths  watering  for 
us  already  ?  With  mingled  feelings  of  delight  and  excitement,  I 
steered  the  little  boat  toward  a  kind  of  steep  sand-bank,  which 
promised  deep  water,  and  had  her,  a  few  minutes  afterward,  safely 
moored  beneath. 


TORRES  STRUTS.  507 

We  jumped  ashore.  The  mate  and  some  of  the  men,  went  to 
hunt  shells  on  shore,  while  two  remained  in  the  boat  for  fear  of 
an  accident,  but  I  had  come  more  particularly  to  see  the  vegeta- 
tion, and  therefore  decided  to  take  a  trip  into  the  interior — the 
whole  island  being,  maybe,  only  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  diameter. 
The  mate  would  not  let  me,  saying  it  was  so  dark,  I  could  see 
nothing  ;  but  I  worked  my  way  into  the  thicket  of  vines  and 
briers — the  whole  outer  edge  seeming  a  perfect  solid  mass  of  these 
— I  entered  soon  after  a  more  open,  and,  as  I  felt  in  walking, 
elevated  spot,  forming  the  centre  of  the  island,  and  bearing  on  the 
still  sandy,  but  leaf-covered  soil,  high  and  stately  trees.  But 
what  a  noise  there  was  in  the  branches — hoy — how  it  cooed, 
and  surred,  and  whistled,  and  flapped — of  thousands  and  thou- 
sands of  birds  !  They  had,  as  I  think,  taken  their  roost  on  the 
quiet,  hardly-ever-disturbed  limbs,  and  hearing  me  breaking  and 
tearing  through  the  bushes  below,  they  fluttered  upward  and 
sought  another,  more  quiet,  resting-place.  On  the  other  end 
of  the  island  some  water-birds  apparently  croaked  and  groan- 
ed, making  so  dreadful  a  noise,  that  at  the  first  outbreak  the 
sailors  had  thought  a  whole  mob  of  blacks  had  rushed  forth  ;  but 
they  soon  heard  the  birds  fly,  and  it  was  evident  the  entire  island 
must  have  been  alive  with  pigeons.  I  had  of  course  my  gun 
with  me,  for  there  was  no  saying  what  might  have  been  in  the 
thicket ;  but  I  could  not  shoot  at  a  single  bird,  even  against  the 
sky,  for  the  woods  were  too  thick  to  let  light  enough  through 
for  taking  aim  at  any  thing. 

After  having  crawled  all  over  the  island,  and  worked  my  way 
again  toward  the  lighter  shore,  with  my  heavy  knife  taking,  as  I 
went,  of  all  the  different  bushes  I  could  feel,  some  small  branches 
with  me.  The  sailors  had  by  that  time  collected  what  shells 
they  could  discover  in  the  dark,  and  we  pulled  back  to  the  ship 
in  hopes  to  have  better  luck  next  time,  and  to  reach  another 
island  before  another  night  set  in. 

Next  morning  with  daybreak  we  got  ready  for  sea  again ;  the 
breeze  being  very  light,  we  could  not  hope  to  make  much  head- 
way, still  the  current  was  in  our  favor,  and  weak-handed  as  we 
were,  we  all  commenced  heaving  at  the  anchor.  There  were 
fifteen  fathoms  of  water  with  about  fifty  fathoms  of  chain  out, 
with  a  perfectly  smooth  sea  ;  the  first  chain  we  took  in  easy 
enough,  but  as  quickly  as  it  stretched  up  and  down,  there  we 


508  JOURNEY   ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

stuck,  and  it  was  as  if  half  a  dozen  anchors  were  pulling  at  it 
instead  of  one.  Inch  by  inch  we  had  to  work  it  up,  sometimes 
straining  for  two  and  three  minutes  without  moving  a  link. 
There  was  most  certainly  something  the  matter  with  the  anchor, 
and  we  began  to  think  that  one  of  the  flukes  had  caught  into 
another  chain  that  some  vessel  had  lost  here,  and  we  were  pull- 
ing, we  could  not  guess  how  many  fathoms  of  chain  in.  After 
an  hour's  work  we  had  not  got  in  six  inches  ;  then  we  paid  away 
what  chain  we  had  won  with  a  sudden  jerk,  to  free,  if  possible, 
the  anchor  from  any  thing  that  could  have  worked  behind  it. 
It  was  no  go,  and  we  had  to  commence  again.  Inch  by  inch, 
and  hour  after  hour  we  worked  and  toiled — sometimes  as  if  we 
should  not  gain  the  least  stretch  more,  sometimes  securing  a  link 
or  two  at  a  time.  At  eleven  o'clock  we  caught  sight  of  a  white 
glare  from  below  of  something  coming  up — what  it  was,  was  left 
to  conjecture. 

At  it  we  went  again,  and  about  twelve  we  brought  the  thing 
to  light — an  immense  shell-block  which  had  got  fastened  behind 
one  of  the  anchor  flukes,  so  hard  as  not  to  allow  a  single  piece  to 
be  knocked  off,  even  with  a  large  sledge-hammer.  To  get  it  out 
of  the  anchor,  we  had  to  fasten  a  chain  round  the  arms,  and  pay- 
ing out  the  chain  again  right  at  once,  the  anchor  capsized  and 
the  shelf-rock  fell  out.  It  was  not  our  blessing  that  went  down 
with  it  to  the  deep. 

As  soon  as  the  anchor  had  been  lifted  above-ground,  we  had 
dropped  our  starboard  anchor,  not  to  be  driven  upon  some  bank ; 
and  that  little  breeze  which  was  blowing  in  the  morning,  having 
died  away  with  the  rising  sun,  there  was  no  chance  of  our  get- 
ting under  weigh  again  to-day,  so  we  decided  on  going  ashore 
again  and  see  some  more  of  the  island. 

Taking  our  guns,  we  soon  reached  our  old  landing.  There 
were  the  prints  of  naked  feet  around,  but  they  were  not  fresh  ; 
and  entering  the  wood  I  now  saw  an  immense  quantity  of  white 
pigeons,  with  a  yellow  lustre  on  the  feathers,  as  cockatoos  have 
to  their  crest,  and  a  broad  black  edging  to  the  tails.  They  looked 
beautiful,  arid  I  had  never  seen  such  a  specie's  any  where  in  Aus- 
tralia. Unfortunately,  we  had  very  few  cartridges  with  us,  and 
I  could  only  fire  nine  shots,  with  which  I  got  eight  pigeons,  losing 
one  in  the  thicket. 

The  nests  of  these  birds  were  very  peculiar,  being  only  a  few 


TORRES  STRAITS.  509 

loose  sticks  put  together ;  they  were  open  at  the  lower  ends,  so 
that  we  could  see  through  them  from  below,  where  it  seemed  as 
if  the  sticks  lay  too  far  apart  even  to  hold  the  eggs ;  and  yet  I 
have  no  doubt  the  hot  climate  requires  such  a  contrivance. 
Though  I  hunted  over  the  whole  island  I  could  not  find  a  single 
drop  of  fresh- water ;  no,  not  even  a  sign  where  a  channel  could 
have  run  in  the  rainy  season ;  yet  the  leaves  of  the  trees  looked 
green  and  healthy. 

There  were  casuarinas  here,  as  on  all  the  other  islands  of  the 
South  Sea,  and  another  bush,  with  round  juicy  leaves,  which 
send  branches  again  into  the  ground,  as  roots  as  it  seemed,  to 
stem  the  force  of  the  waves,  if  they  should  dash  against  the  shore. 
These  formed  the  outer  thicket  of  the  shrub ;  inside  grew  the 
casuarina  and  several  other  bushes  I  did  not  know  the  name  of; 
and  inside  these  again,  on  the  highest  land,  there  was  a  fine- 
looking  tree  standing,  in  leaves  and  structure  not  unlike  the 
Louisiana  magnolia,  but  with  ripe  and  exceedingly  well-tasting, 
though  rather  dry  fruit. 

These  fruits  covered  the  ground  every  where,  and  had  the 
exact  shape  and  color  of  our  long  German  plums,  though  with 
stones  inside,  like  the  Chinese  loquat,  irregular,  some  with  one, 
some  with  two,  some  even  with  three,  four,  or  five  ;  the  fruit  did 
not  become  larger  in  consequence.  The  color  was  dark  red,  the 
perfectly  ripe  ones  of  a  deep  blue,  just  like  the  plums,  differing 
only  in  taste.  They  were  more  dry  and  sweet,  and  very  much 
like  fresh  dates,  with  a  similar  kind  of  peel  round  the  seed. 

I  collected  a  good  quantity  of  the  seed,  taking  it  with  me  partly 
to  Java,  partly  to  Germany ;  but  the  botanical  gardener  in  Bui- 
tenzorg,  Mr.  Teismann,  did  not  know  the  seed,  and  planted  it  in 
his  garden.  I  took  also  a  great  many  eggs  of  sea-fowl  we  found 
in  the  hot  coral  sand,  always  two  and  two,  their  points  touching 
their  sides,  and  the  sailors  collected  large  quantities  to  take  on 
board.  I  planted  on  the  southern  shore  of  the  island  two  oranges 
and  two  lemons. 

Before  we  left  the  island,  and  while  the  sun  was  just  setting 
below  the  horizon,  we  took  a  good  bath  in  the  crystal-clear  water, 
swimming  about  over  the  coral-trees  of  the  deep,  and  returning 
as  darkness  set  in  to  our  ship. 

Next  morning  our  anchor  came  up  at  once  ;  and  with  a  favor- 
able, though  not  very  strong  breeze,  we  were  fast  gliding  along 


510  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

through  the  perfectly  smooth  water.  This  day  we  neared  the 
mainland  of  Australia  more  and  more,  coming  near  enough  fre- 
quently to  see  the  rippling  of  the  waves  against  the  shore. 

That  night  we  intended  to  anchor  near  Mount  Adolphus,  an- 
other small  island  ;  and  observing  with  the  telescope,  at  two 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  smoke,  and  an  hour  latfir,  black  fellows 
upon  the  nearest  hill,  our  mate  got  rather  doubtful  whether  to 
risk  a  landing  there  or  not.  I  persuaded  him  at  last ;  and  we 
provided  ourselves  this  time  with  all  kinds  of  weapons — for  there 
was,  in  fact,  no  knowing  what  kind  of  reception  we  should  meet. 
The  island  is  tolerably  large,  with  a  hill  of  about  five  hundred 
feet  high ;  several  wide  valleys  and  one  large  bay  formed  a  kind 
of  horse-shoe  with  two  projecting  points  or  promontories.  The 
vegetation  seemed  the  same  as  on  Cairncross,  and  nowhere  could 
I  discover  cocoa-nut  trees — but  found  here  on  Mount  Adolphus, 
as  on  the  main  coast  we  had  passed,  the  singular  formed  pan- 
danus.  At  three  o'clock  we  cast  anchor,  the  sails  were  furled, 
and  we  pulled  for  the  shore. 

The  nearer  we  came,  we  could  see  more  of  the  natives  running 
about ;  and  some  of  our  men,  particularly  one,  a  young  English 
sailor,  who  had  had  a  fight  with  the  natives,  as  he  said,  seemed 
very  anxious  to  keep  out  of  reach  of  their  spears.  But  I  was 
determined  to  have  a  conversation  with  some  of  the  old  fellows, 
and  steering  for  the  nearest  point,  close  to  which  an  open  sandy 
spot  shone  out,  we  saw  a  small  mob  of  about  twelve  or  fifteen 
men  run  down  it,  and  though  they  had  long  spears  when  they 
were  standing  on  the  top  of  the  hill,  none  of  them  seemed  to 
have  any  weapons  now,  and  were  all  swinging  green  bushes,  and 
hallooing  and  screaming  something  we  could  not  of  course  under- 
stand. 

Nearing  the  shore,  I  ran  the  boat  along  a  little,  to  look  out 
for  a  good  landing-place  ;  and  the  natives  seeing  what  we  want- 
ed, jumped  down  to  one  particular  spot,  motioning  us  to  come 
there,  and  waving  their  bushes  vigorously. 

"  Bless  their  black  hides,"  cried  the  English  sailor,  watching 
them  rather  suspiciously ;  "  there  is  one  big  fellow  carrying  a 
bush  in  one  hand  and  a  club  in  the  other;  which  shall  we  trust 
to  ?"  But  they  seemed  friendly  enough  ;  and  to  assure  us,  as 
far  as  they  had  it  in  their  power,  one  old  fellow  jumped  into  the 
water  and  swam  toward  us,  climbing  into  our  boat  as  soon  as  he 


TORRES  STRAITS.  511 

reached  us,  thus  offering  himself  as  a  kind  of  hostage.  They  had 
no  need,  for  I  did  not  fear  them,  and  with  my  gun  and  knife  felt 
sure  enough  to  keep  them  friendly,  without  intending  them  the 
least  harm.  There  were  too  many  cliffs  running  close  to  shore 
where  we  were ;  I  jumped  right  between  them  into  the  water, 
while  the  mate  staid  on  board  till  he  could  step  out  on  dry 
land.  When  the  natives  saw  me  they  set  up  a  wild  scream, 
most  assuredly  in  pleasure,  and  beckoned  me  to  come  upon  dry 
land  to  them. 

What  they  said  I  could  not  understand — not  even  a  word ; 
there  being  not  the  least  similarity  in  language  between  them 
and  the  southern,  or  Murray  tribes  ;  but  there  is  always  a  way 
to  understand  each  other  if  persons  are  so  inclined.  As  quickly 
as  we  touched  the  shore,  they  all  pressed  around  us ;  and  one 
old  fellow,  the  principal  chief  of  the  whole  mob,  as  it  seemed, 
introduced  us  to  his  entire  family,  giving  us  a  true  description 
of  all  their  characters  and  virtues  I  expect — it  was,  at  any  rate, 
a  very  long  speech. 

Some  brought  those  fruits  we  had  found  on  Cairncross  Island, 
some  shells,  another  touched  our  guns,  motioning  at  the  same 
time  that  there  was  something  to  shoot  in  the  other  parts  of  the 
island ;  and  we  saw  afterward  the  same  white  pigeons  in  the 
trees. 

The  vegetation  of  the  island  seemed  the  same  as  on  Cairncross ; 
but  the  nearest  valley  was  a  perfect  swamp,  grown  over  with 
those  bushes  I  have  mentioned  before,  which  run  their  branches 
down  to  the  soil,  forming  in  this  way  sometimes  a  perfectly  wall- 
like  thicket.  The  hills  seemed  entirely  volcanic,  with  coral-reefs 
around  them. 

On  the  mainland  we  had  noticed,  during  the  day,  some  rather 
extraordinary  objects — some  on  the  slope,  some  on  the  tops  of 
the  hills,  which  looked,  through  the  telescope  like  broken,  or 
cut-off  stumps  of  trees,  only  a  little  too  pointed.  Here  I  now 
saw  the  same  on  one  of  the  little  hills  ;  so  I  walked  up  the  slope, 
followed  by  the  whole  crowd,  but  always  keeping  an  eye  on 
them  ;  and  reaching  the  spot,  found  what  I  had  thought  stumps, 
high  piles  of  yellow  clay,  doubtless  the  work  of  some  large  kind 
of  ants.  Pieces  I  broke  off  plainly  showed  the  cells  and  walks 
inside,  and  the  black  burnt  ground  around  them  betrayed  in  what 
way  the  poor  little  animals  had  been  destroyed.  By  their  ges- 


512  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

tures  the  blacks  seemed  just  as  fond  of  them  as  their  more  south- 
ern brethren. 

They  took  us  also  to  some  small  springs  on  the  southern  part 
of  the  island ;  they  consisted  of  two  very  small  water-holes,  close 
to  the  sea-shore  too  ;  so  the  water  tasted — through  the  spray  and 
the  foam  of  the  breakers,  I  expect,  with  high  wind  and  rolling 
waves — rather  brackish  and  warm.  Close  to  the  spring,  as  if  to 
drink  with,  a  large  shell  was  lying.  Peculiar  seemed  to  me  the 
way  in  which  they  were  describing  distance  and  direction,  kirri, 
kirri,  kirri,  being  the  only  words ;  but  the  gestures  gave  at  the 
same  time  such  a  full  explanation,  I  could  have  guessed  the 
distance  far  better  than  when  asking  in  our  country  one  of  the 
peasants  a  direction,  when  he  tells  me  with  a  shrug  of  his 
shoulders,  "  about  a  pipe  and  a  half  of  tobacco,"  meaning  the 
time  he  smokes  a  pipe  and  a  half  in  steady  drawing.  Kirri  is  a 
short  distance — as  far  as  I  learned  there,  about  two  hundred 
yards — the  hand  showing  at  the  same  time  which  way.  Kirri, 
kirri,  is  as  far  again ;  and  each  kirri  added,  increases  the  distance. 

Reaching  the  first  open  hill,  and  in  full  view  of  our  vessel,  an 
old  well-shaped  burka  (old  man)  met  us,  with  a  young  girl  and 
two  raw-boned,  broad-shouldered  boys,  as  ugly  as  eye  ever  be- 
held, whom  he  introduced  to  us,  the  mate  and  myself,  as  his  own 
flesh  and  blood.  The  girl,  maybe  twelve  or  fourteen  years  old, 
was  a  nice  and  pretty  young  thing,  and  the  fairest  maiden  among 
the  blacks  I  had  seen ;  she  also  looked — a  very  rare  case  with 
them — cleanly,  but  her  dress  was  rather  too  simple.  She  wore 
the  smallest  kind  of  an  apron  imaginable  ;  it  was  about  four 
inches  square,  and  a  thin  hair-cord  passed  over  her  right  shoulder 
and  under  her  left  arm.  But  I  intended  to  do  something  here  in 
the  way  of  millinery  or  dressmaking,  so  pulling  out  of  my  hunt- 
ing-pouch a  blue  cotton  shirt  I  had  taken  with  me,  to  trade  with 
the  natives  for  weapons,  I  presented  it  to  the  fair  princess — for 
she  could  be  nothing  else  upon  this  lone  spot — and  begged  her 
to  accept  it.  The  little  girl  was  standing  rather  bashful  before 
me,  and  lifting  up  first  one  of  the  sleeves,  and  then  the  other, 
seemed  to  doubt  whether  she  must  slip  into  this  new  court-dress 
with  her  feet  or  her  arms  first.  No  choice  being  left  me,  1  had 
to  play  chamber-maid — and  here  was  a  situation  for  a  married 
man  !  But  what  could  I  do  ?  the  mate  being  also  married,  I 
felt  too  good  a  Christian  to  lead  him  into  temptation,  therefore 


TORRES  STRAITS.  513 

concluded  to  run  the  risk  myself;  considering  myself  as  a  martyr, 
however,  in  a  very  small  way.  The  little  girl  seemed  to  be  very 
much  pleased  with  the  improvement,  thinking  herself  with  that 
one  piece  of  clothing  of  course  fully  dressed.  The  hair-cord  she 
wore  round  her  shoulder,  I  exchanged  afterward  for  a  fishing- 
line  and  some  fish-hooks. 

The  sun  was  hardly  an  hour  high,  and  we  had  to  return  with 
sun-down  to  the  ship,  therefore  I  could  not  think  of  visiting  their 
camp,  which  lay  upon  the  other  side  of  the  island  ;  but  wishing 
to  leave  them  some  remembrance,  1  took  them  to  the  most  favor- 
able spot  I  could  find  in  the  neighborhood,  and  planted  there  for 
them — it  was  on  the  southern  shore  of  the  island — two  oranges 
and  two  lemons  I  had  taken  with  me  from  the  ship  for  that  very 
purpose  ;  and  I  really  did  astonish  the  natives,  for  they  never  yet 
in  their  lives  had  seen  an  orange,  or  a  fruit  like  it.  To  prevent 
their  digging  them  out  again,  I  cut  the  fruits,  mingling  the  flesh 
with  sand  ;  and  only  to  show  them  what  kind  of  plant  they 
would  raise  from  it,  I  gave  them  a  taste  of  one  I  had  at  first  in- 
tended for  myself.  Cutting  it  in  small  slices,  I  divided  the  fruit 
among  them  ;  taking  good  care  at  the  same  time  that  my  little 
princess  should  get  the  first  piece.  Funny  it  was  to  see  how 
they  took  the  first  taste  of  the  sweet,  juicy  fruit — for  the  Sydney 
oranges  are  really  most  excellent — some  of  the  big  fellows  swal- 
lowed the  whole  at  the  first  gulp,  making  rather  a  wry  face 
when  they  got  to  the  bitter  peeling  ;  but  some  soon  found  out 
how  to  eat  it,  and  having  finished  their  piece,  grabbed  at  some 
of  the  rest. 

After  this,  lying  awhile  in  the  shade,  under  a  large  pandanus, 
while  the  whole  mob  were  squatting  around  us,  making  their 
observations,  as  it  seemed,  about  the  strangers,  and  being  tickled 
sometimes  nearly  to  death,  if  they  saw  something  very  extraor- 
dinary, the  second  mate  stepped  out  of  the  boat,  and  kept  shoot- 
ing at  a  tree — sailors  like  to  shoot  off  guns  and  ride  horses,  to 
death — and  at  each  crack  of  the  gun  all  the  natives  dodged  their 
heads.  They  did  not  seem  to  like  the  shooting  at  all ;  but  they 
laughed  notwithstanding  good-humoredly,  as  if  intending  to  say, 
"  Never  mind,  we  know  you're  not  going  to  hurt  us."  All  these 
natives  seemed,  in  fact,  as  harmless  as  possible,  and  really  anx- 
ious to  please  us.  I  verily  believe  in  nearly  all  the  quarrels  be- 
tween white  men  and  Indians,  the  first  cause,  if  blood  is  spilt, 


514  JOURNEY   ROUND   THE  WORLD. 

may  be  traced  to  some  violence  committed  by  the  former.  Jeal- 
ousy has  also  frequently  armed  the  hand  of  the  native  ;  and  the 
Indian  is  fiery  in  his  hate,  and  quick  in  his  revenge.  The  effect 
was  afterward  taken  for  the  cause ;  and  the  poor  native  could 
not  defend  himself  when  white  men  told  the"  story  their  own  way, 
and  slandered  him  behind  his  back. 

I  carried  some  of  the  vermilion  in  my  pocket,  with  which  I 
had  rubbed  the  noses,  gladdened  the  eyes,  and  flattered  the  pride 
of  a  whole  mob  of  natives  on  the  Murray,  and  thought  that  I 
could  also  please  these  kind  Indians  a  little.  Motioning  the 
nearest  one  up  to  me,  I  took  out  the  bright  red  paint,  and  com- 
menced rubbing  his  nose  with  it.  At  first  he  looked  rather  fright- 
ened at  me ;  but  being  a  warrior,  I  fancy  he  hated  to  show  fear, 
and  "  stood  it."  The  others  were  now  pressing  around.  Oh,  if 
the  reader  had  seen  that  scene  !  or  if  I  had  room  here  to  give  him 
an  exact  description  !  Every  one  was  taken  aback  by  the  shin- 
ing red  spot  that  sparkled  suddenly  in  his  friend's  face,  and  was 
eager,  as  it  seemed,  to  be  the  next  to  get  such  an  honor  conferred 
upon  him.  But  when  I  had  finished  the  second,  and  my  first 
martyr  beheld  him,  his  face  brightened  up,  as  a  summer  sky  after 
a  thunder-storm,  a  broad  grin  stretched  over  his  features,  taking 
station  there  through  the  rest  of  the  operation ;  and  his  nose,  over 
two  rows  of  powerful  grinders,  really  looked  like  a  glow-worm 
soaring  over  a  snow- field. 

All  the  old  and  venerable-looking  coves,  as  my  mates  in  Aus- 
tralia would  have  said,  I  finished  first ;  and  having  some  of  the 
paint  left,  the  young  ones  pressed  round,  wanting  also  a  touch  of 
the  color.  I  did  give  it  to  them.  Even  the  women  did  not  want 
to  be  thrown  in  the  shade  ;  and  though  there  were  some  extra- 
ordinary ugly  ones  among  them,  I  did  my  best  to  improve  their 
physiognomies.  I  painted  them  all  except  the  little  girl  I  had 
dressed  :  I  thought.it  a  pity  to  spoil  her  friendly  little  counte- 
nance. And  bless  my  soul,  how  wild  and  dangerous  the  others 
looked,  with  their  firebrand  faces.  But  the  poor  thing  had  been 
standing  quite  alone,  and  downcast,  under  the  nearest  tree,  watch- 
ing me  as  closely  as  she  could ;  and  only  now,  when  I  did  not 
show  the  least  intention  to  do  her  justice,  as  I  had  done  the  rest, 
she  approached  the  place  where  I  was  standing,  half  frightened, 
half  resolute,  and  though  saying  nothing,  was  poking  up  her  little 
nose  in  such  a  determined  manner,  and  with  such  a  beseeching 


TORRES  STRAITS.  515 

look,  my  heart  must  have  been  of  stone  if  I  had  left  her  nose 
black.  The  next  moment  my  pretty  little  girl  sported  the  reddest 
nose  among  them. 

Throwing  the  papers  away,  some  of  the  people  gathered  them 
up  and  kept  them,  as  it  seemed,  very  carefully  for  a  solemn  oc- 
casion. 

But  the  sun  nearing  the  horizon,  and  while  the  women  and 
the  greater  part  of  the  men,  retired  to  their  own  camping-ground,  I 
took  a  bath,  and  went  to  the  boat  to  return  to  the  ship.  Reach- 
ing the  boat,  I  found  the  old  fellow  there  still,  who  had  offered 
himself  for  an  hostage.  I  had  quite  forgotten  him ;  so  I  gave  him 
some  tobacco,  fish-hooks,  and  several  other  knickknacks  I  had  with 
me ;  and  while  the  sailors  prepared  the  boat,  raised  the  little 
mast,  and  got  the  sail  ready — for  a  nice  breeze  promised  to  carry 
us  quickly  back  on  board — I  could  not  make  out  what  the  fellow 
wanted,  rubbing  his  face,  pointing  at  the  other  blacks  who  were 
standing  on  the  beach,  and  looking  as  much  out  of  spirits  as  if 
he  had  swallowed  a  hot  potato.  When  he  saw  at  last  I  really 
could  not  make  out  what  he  wanted,  he  jumped  ashore,  took  hold 
of  one  of  his  comrades,  led  him  down,  rubbed  his  nose,  and  pointed 
reproachfully  at  the  fiery  spot.  I  could  not  help  myself,  I  burst 
out  laughing — but  there  was  no  cure  for  the  poor  fellow,  I  had 
never  thought  of  him,  and  all  the  vermilion  had  been  given 
away.  So  explaining  that  to  him  as  far  as  I  was  able,  and  try- 
ing to  console  him  for  the  loss  by  a  good,  and  for  him  really  val- 
uable fishing-line,  I  bid  him  good-by.  Just  as  I  was  stepping 
into  the  boat,  I  saw  some  of  the  natives  bring  forth  their  hidden 
harpoons  and  lances,  which  they  required  to  take  home  with 
them.  I  had  some  tobacco  left,  and  wanting  some  of  those  weap- 
ons traded  with  them  for  two  harpoons,  and  one  lance  and  midla. 
I  had  also  got  from  the  island  some  very  nice  shells,  and  some 
tortoise-shells ;  but  even  while  we  pushed  off  the  boat,  and  set 
our  sails,  I  could  see  our  former  hostage  standing  on  shore,  rub- 
bing his  black  nose  with  his  left  hand,  and  looking  reproachfully 
after  us. 

Next  morning,  with  daybreak,  we  set  sail  again.  The  natives 
tried  to  come  on  board  once  more,  in  a  canoe  they  had,  with  two 
out-riggers,  and  a  small  sail  made  of  some  sort  of  mats  ;  but  the 
current  was  too  strong  against  them,  and  before  they  could  reach 
us,  we  had  our  sails*  down,  and  away  we  went. 


516  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

With  a  favorable  breeze,  and  holding  the  middle  channel,  which 
is  said  to  be  safer  than  the  more  southern  Endeavor  Straits,  we 
made  Wednesday  Island ;  and  keeping  it  close  to  larboard,  always 
in  sight  of  the  northern  Australian  coast,  passed  one  of  the  most 
dangerous,  at  least  the  most  narrow  parts  in  the  whole  Torres 
Straits,  having  the  rocks  of  Wednesday  Island  close  in  larboard, 
and  a  right  nasty  bank,  the  green  water  of  which  was  easily  dis- 
cernible, on  our  starboard  side.  With  wind  and  current  in  our 
favor,  we  had  nothing  to  fear,  and  soon  beheld  the  key  of  this 
wild  and  rather  dangerous  place,  a  small  rocky  island,  from 
a  great  quantity  of  sea-fowl,  called  Booby  Island,  right  before 
us.  This  island  is  a  very  interesting  place,  and  I  will  give  the 
reader,  as  we  bid  farewell  here  to  Australia,  a  short  description 
of  it. 

Booby  Island  is  the  post-office  of  the  straits,  and  though  as 
barren  a  place  as  can  be  seen  any  where,  is  a  well  known,  and, 
in  fact,  much  desired  spot  for  all  those  who  come  from  the  east ; 
with  Booby  Island,  all  the  dangers  of  the  straits  are  passed,  and 
ships  are  here  in  deep  water  once  more,  not  obliged  to  anchor  at 
night,  and  feel  their  way  in  the  day-time.  Nearly  all  passing 
ships  send  their  boats  here  ashore,  to  inquire  at  the  post-office  if 
there  are  any  letters  for  them. 

But  who  is  living  on  such  a  barren  spot  ?  Nobody,  dear  reader 
— not  a  soul — and  still  it  is  the  most  commodious  post-office,  only 
not  in  the  situation  you  would  wish  for.  There  you  find  paper, 
ink,  pens,  and  wafers,  ready  for  use  ;  you  are  allowed  to  look  for 
your  own  letters,  and  yours  are  taken  in  directly,  post-paid  or 
not. 

The  little  island  is  about  half  a  mile  in  circumference,  maybe 
not  that,  and  only  covered  here  and  there  with  single,  and  low, 
but  thick  bushes,  bearing  leaves  something  like  pear-leaves  ;  a 
kind  of  sickly  vine  crawling  at  the  same  time  through  and  over 
the  rocky  crevices.  The  island  is  about  thirty  or  forty  feet  high, 
of  volcanic  origin,  and  with  such  steep  banks,  as  to  be  accessible 
only  in  a  few  places.  The  top  is  flat,  whence  can  be  seen  the 
whole  of  the  island,  except  a  small  strip  of  coral  at  low  tide, 
circling  round  it,  and  forming  the  lower  part ;  and  in  the  centre, 
a  stone  hut  is  erected,  the  walls  about  four  feet  high,  the  inside, 
open  toward  the  northwest,  I  believe,  about  five  feet  long,  in  which 
a  large  box,  with  a  coffin-like  cover  is  standing.  The  whole  is 


TORRES  STRAITS.  517 

covered  with  some  split  boards,  and  a  little  square  plate  on  the 
box  has  the  following  inscription  : 

POST-OFFICE. 

PROVISIONS    AND    WATER 

IN    A    CAVE    S.E.    END    OF    THE 

ISLAND. 

A  flag-staff  is  stuck  into  some  loose  stones,  and  has  borne,  in 
former  times  probably,  the  English  flag,  but  now  only  a  few  dis- 
colored rags  are  fluttering  in  the  breeze. 

In  the  box,  arriving  vessels  commonly  put  a  short  account  of 
their  voyage,  if  they  come  from  the  east ;  particularly  the  time 
they  have  been  coming,  to  leave  a  memorial  if  any  thing  should 
happen  to  them  in  the  dangers  of  the  straits.  It  is  very  much 
like  making  a  will.  Those  going  out,  take  what  they  find,  and 
advertise  it  in  the  nearest  port  they  reach. 

From  here  I  went  of  course  to  the  southeastern  part  of  the 
island,  and  was  surprised  to  find  a  large  and  high  cave — the 
whole  island,  seeming  undermined — perfectly  sheltered  against 
any  storm  and  raging  sea,  and  formed  by  nature  as  if  for  the  par- 
ticular purpose  of  having  here,  close  to  the  dangers  of  the  straits, 
a  deposit  of  provisions  and  water  for  poor  shipwrecked  sailors  ; 
while  the  island  lies  too  far  west,  and  looks  too  barren,  to  invite 
any  natives  to  a  visit. 

The  English  have  the  honor  of  this  establishment,  and  English 
vessels  principally — I  believe  I  may  say  entirely — have  provided 
the  place  with  every  thing  needed,  in  case  of  a  ship  getting 
wrecked  in  the  straits,  where  the  crew  is  almost  always  able,  at 
least  in  the  southeast  monsoon,  to  reach  this  place,  and  are  sure 
then  to  be  taken  off  after  awhile  by  some  passing  vessel.  Many 
a  life  has  already  been  saved  by  this  charitable  arrangement  and 
it  will  prove  the  preservation  of  many  more. 

Wild  enough  the  place  looked  though  in  the  dark  gloomy  cave 
— barrels  and  casks  were  standing  and  lying  in  wild  disorder  ; 
boxes  with  biscuits,  and  barrels  with  meat — some  fresh,  some 
spoiled  ;  old  opened  water-casks,  nobody  had  taken  time  or  trou- 
ble to  remove ;  even  potatoes,  and  with  other  knickknacks,  two 
bottles  of  brandy. 

The  word  "  Harbinger"  is  written  with  large  characters  on  the 
inside  ;  but  I  do  not  know  if  this  is  the  name  of  the  first  vessel 


518  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

which  brought  provisions  here,  or  that  of  some  wrecked  seaman, 
who  was  fond  enough  of  his  own  appellation  to  have  it  scrawled 
over  the  wall  in  this  way. 

There  is  a  large  number  of  boobys,  and  of  another  kind  of  sea- 
fowl  with  swallow-tails ;  the  whole  surface  of  the  island  being 
covered,  in  fact,  with  a  thin  layer  of  guano,  giving  it  the  appear- 
ance of  having  been  whitewashed.  I  took  a  slight  sketch  of 
the  post-office  and  cave ;  and  returning  on  board  with  the  boat, 
the  yards  were  braced  square,  studding-sails  set  to  starboard  and 
larboard,  and  we  went  before  a  fine  stiff  breeze  into  the  Indian 
Ocean. 

Our  voyage  from  that  date  had  nothing  more  interesting ;  we 
sighted  Timor,  and  lay  becalmed  for  fifteen  days,  only  drifting 
with  the  current  and  a  light  evening  breeze  about  half  a  degree 
in  twenty-four  hours.  Driving  about  so  long  our  water  ran  out, 
while  hardly  a  drop  of  rain  was  falling,  and  our  cows  were  far- 
ing badly  by  it.  Ten  or  twelve  calved  in  that  time ;  but  all 
brought  dead  calves,  the  heat  in  the  lower  hold  being  too  great ; 
also  five  cows  died  this  time — seven  in  all  before  we  reached 
Batavia.  We  were  nearly  driven  to  make  some  part  of  the  south- 
ern coast  of  Java  for  water,  when  at  last,  the  sixteenth  day  of 
the  calm,  a  rattling  breeze  sprung  up,  and  running  before  it,  we 
made  the  Sunda  Straits  on  the  7th  of  November.  With  daylight, 
we  were  between  the  green  and  balmy  shores  of  Java  and  Su- 
matra. 


JAVA, 
CHAPTER  I. 

BATAV1A. 

WHAT  a  sweet  sight  they  are,  those  waving  trees,  those  green 
and  shady  groves,  after  a  long  voyage  ;  and  how  carefully  do  we 
watch  each  valley  growing  as  it  were,  from  out  of  an  indistinct 
mass  into  existence  before  our  eyes.  India  !  the  name  already 
had  a  charm  ;  and  with  the  dangers  of  the  Torres  Straits  behind 
us,  those  nodding  cocoa-nut  trees,  with  their  broad  arid  feathery 
leaves,  seemed  to  wink  us  a  welcome  to  their  homes,  while  the 
white-breasted  hawk,  which  came  over  from  the  shore  and 
soared  around  our  masts,  screamed  in  pure  delight. 

With  a  favorable  breeze,  hugging  the  northern  coast  of  Java, 
and  taking  the  channel  between  this  and  Prince's  Island,  we 
entered  the  straits.  Next  day,  sailing  round  the  point  of  Cape 
Nicholas,  with  the  whole  island-spotted  bay  before  us,  we  an- 
chored that  night,  passing  closely  several  islands  with  their  fruit- 
tree-covered  shores,  in  sight  of  the  outer  roadstead  to  Batavia. 
Next  morning  we  had  to  weigh  anchor  again  ;  but  this  time  made 
our  mooring  ground,  and  running  in  between  some  of  the  farth- 
est ships,  while  our  Prussian  flag  was  waving,  our  nearest  neigh- 
bor answered  with  the  Bremen  flag — the  "  Ernst  Moritz  Arndt." 

The  same  day  a  watch-boat  came  alongside  ;  the  police  are 
inquisitive  every  where,  particularly  in  the  Dutch  colonies — even 
before  this  the  small  boats  of  the  ship-chandlers — the  vultures  of 
every  harbor — sent  their  deputies  on  board  to  the  captain.  But 
this  seemed  the  only  life  on  the  water,  not  even  a  fruit  boat  hove 
in  sight ;  it  being  Sunday,  and  the  shore  lying  so  far  off  with  its 
low  and  swampy  coast,  nothing  was  to  be  distinguished  there, 
except  in  some  places  the  red  house-tops  as  they  shone  out  from 


520  JOURNEY  HOUND  THE  WOULD. 

the  dark-green  shades  of  the  cocoa-nut  tree  groves  which  lined 
the  coast. 

A  boat  with  Malays  at  last  pulled  alongside,  and  climbing  up 
the  vessel,  but  keeping  along  the  shrouds,  for  we  had  several  dogs 
loose  on  deck,  they  stole  carefully — with  tneir  eyes  fixed  upon 
the  dogs — to  the  high  quarter-deck,  to  offer  their  services  to  the 
captain.  It  is  customary  here  for  the  captains  to  hire,  while  they 
stay,  a  boat  and  crew,  which  they  have  for  four  gulden  (about 
six  shillings)  a  day ;  for  their  own  men  could  not  stand  pulling 
backward  and  forward  in  such  a  heat,  without  endangering  their 
lives.  I  had  studied  during  this  last  voyage  the  Malay  language 
most  eagerly,  and  improved  very  much  in  it,  as  I  thought ;  still 
when  I  heard  these  Malays  speak  I  could  understand  a  few  words, 
but  was  not  able  to  catch  their  meaning.  It  is  always  so  in 
learning  a  strange  language,  your  ear  must  get  used  first  to  the 
peculiar  sound  ;  and  having  overcome  that,  you  soon  comprehend 
the  rest. 

At  nine  o'clock  next  morning  we  pulled  ashore,  and  if  I  had 
a  thousand  hands  and  pens,  I  could  not  describe  those  different 
sights  and  peculiar  objects  which  pressed  around  us  nearly  at 
every  stroke  of  the  oars.  Every  thing  was  new,  every  thing  was 
strange,  and  of  a  powerful  interest  for  me  ;  and  I  sat  quietly  in 
the  boat  watching,  with  an  indescribable  feeling  of  satisfaction 
in  their  originality,  the  new  scenes  and  characters  as  they  flew 
by — the  Malay  himself,  in  his  sharp-pointed  prow ;  the  Chinese, 
upon  his  high  and  seemingly  clumsy  junk  ;  the  watch-boats  with 
their  small  cannons  and  dark  swarthy  faces,  as  we  entered  the 
nariow  channel  or  canal,  hemmed  in  by  a  wall  of  coral-blocks ; 
with  the  waving  palm-crowns  in  the  background.  The  fruit  boats 
which  we  passed,  going  out ;  the  yawls  of  foreign  vessels  with 
their  vari-colored  flags  and  dark-visaged  crew,  as  they  were  glid- 
ing along  the  smooth  water  of  the  channel — if  I  had  seen  sim- 
ilar scenes,  these  at  least  were  new  to  me ;  and  with  the  blue- 
stretched  sky  above,  I  felt  as  happy  as  if  that  low  channel  before 
me  had  been  the  flat  shore  of  the  old  far-away  Weser,  and  yonder 
strange  and  sunny  coast  my  own  home. 

So  at  last  we  entered  the  town,  passing  the  custom-house, 
where  we  had  our  goods  searched,  quite  in  home-fashion,  and 
where  an  old  funny-looking  Malay,  in  a  tight  and  uncomfortable- 
fitting  uniform,  was  vigorously  strutting  about. 


BATAV1A.  521 

Taking  a  carriage  here — for  hardly  any  white  person  walks, 
even  from  one  street  into  another — I  was  astonished  by  seeing 
their  little  things  of  horses.  Coming  from  New  South  Wales, 
where  they  have  such  strong  and  powerful  animals,  these  looked 
so  puny  and  weak,  I  thought  them  scarcely  ahle  to  pull  our 
light  carriage  along  the  smooth  and  level  road;  but  they  are 
stronger  than  you  take  them  for.  When  you  have  been  some 
time  in  the  country,  and  you  get  used  to  them,  they  grow,  as 
it  were,  under  your  eyes,  and  after  awhile  you  do  not  think  them 
so  very  small. 

But  though  we  had  entered  Batavia,  I  could  see  nothing  yet 
looking  like  a  real  town.  There  were  some  gardens  and  houses 
in  them ;  and,  following  the  canal  we  reached  at  last  a  kind 
of  street  of  large  warehouses  and  old-fashioned  buildings  of 
former  times  ;  the  Rali  Besaar  (the  great  river),  as  the  Malays 
call  the  small  canal,  one  could  almost  have  jumped  across,  form- 
ing the  centre  of  the  street  and  chief  medium  of  communication, 
as  it  seemed.  But  here  the  real  life  of  Batavia  began.  These 
warehouses  were  the  depositories  of  the  powerful  Dutch  maats- 
chappij  ;  and  those  boats  here,  in  the  small  canal,  took  out  cargoes 
to  ships  of  all  nations  in  the  world.  And  what  a  mixed  crowd 
of  colors  and  men !  Here  were  brown,  singular  figures,  in  old- 
fashioned,  tasteless  uniforms  ;  there  dark-skinned  natives,  with 
their  loads  hanging  on  a  piece  of  bamboo,  swinging  before  and 
behind — slowly  walking  along  with  a  light  load,  and  nearly  run- 
ning with  a  heavy  weight  upon  them — low  huts,  overhung  by  the 
crowns  of  nodding  cocoa-nut  trees ;  small  cozy-looking  gardens, 
with  broad-leaved  bananas,  palms,  and  other  fruit-trees;  cab- 
like  chariots,  with  Malay  coachmen,  taking  one  of  the  white 
merchants  to  his  comptoir,  or  some  other  business  place  ;  long- 
tailed  Chinese,  with  their  paper'  umbrellas  and  peculiar  hats, 
bathing  natives  of  both  sexes  in  the  muddy  water  of  the  canal ; 
small  fruit-stands  ;  and  now,  farther  out,  splendid  villas,  with 
high  and  lofty  colonnades  and  verrandas — this  is  the  first  sight, 
the  first  impression  of  Batavia  ;  and,  as  the  reader  may  think,  it 
is  not  taken  in  all  at  one  look,  in  the  first  moment  of  one's 
arrival. 

Batavia,  the  old  town,  is  built  close  to  the  sea-shore,  its  site 
having  disappeared  once  during  an  earthquake,  and  is  only  in- 
habited by  Malays  and  Chinese.  The  merchants  have  their 


522  JOURNEY  BOUND  THE  WORLD. 

business-places  in  it,  and  leave  it  in  the  evening,  toward  dusk,  to 
return  to  their  country  houses.  An  erroneous  opinion  is  enter- 
tained by  some  people  that  these  country  houses  in  a  higher,  are 
therefore  in  a  more  healthy  region  ;  the  difference  in  the  height 
between  Cramat,  and  the  sea-coast  can  nardly  be  more  than 
twenty-five  feet,  nay,  not  even  that ;  but  the  ground,  cut  up  here 
by  some  running  mountain  streams,  is  drier  and  more  open,  the 
air  has  more  passage  ;  and  those  places,  therefore — shaded  by  the 
thick-leaved  trees  and  the  habitations,  singly  scattered  in  wide 
and  airy  gardens  (compounds) — are  more  salubrious  for  the  Eu- 
ropean. 

But,  after  all,  Batavia  deserves  not  the  bad  name  strangers 
have  commonly  given  to  it  on  account  of  its  unhealthiness.  A 
foreigner,  who  avoids  the  sun's  rays  as  much  as  possible,  avoids 
too  much  intoxicating  drinks,  as  gin  and  brandy,  and  takes  the 
ordinary  precaution  against  wet  feet  or  clothing,  may  live  as 
healthy  and  as  comfortable  in  Batavia  as  any  where  else  ;  and  I 
have  seen  hundreds  of  Europeans  there  who  had  been  many 
years  in  the  country,  and  seemed  as  well  satisfied  with  their 
health  as  if  they  had  been  in  the  most  salubrious  part  of  the 
world.  But  from  wrhence  came  all  those  dreadful  stories  of 
fevers  and  tigers,  of  upas  trees,  and  the  Lord  knows  what  else,  if 
there  is  no  truth  in  them  ? 

Dear  reader,  the  thing  is  easily  explained.  Every  body  travels 
nowadays,  but  every  body  can  not  have  adventures ;  still  every 
body  wants  to  relate  something,  and  be  the  hero  of  it  too ;  and 
poking  his  head  into  a  Javanese  forest,  maybe  without  leaving 
the  post  road,  he  of  course  must  have  seen  a  tiger,  which  crawled 
off  most  likely  when  he  fastened  his  eye  upon  it ;  or  a  boa-con- 
strictor, ready  to  spring  upon  him ;  or,  if  not  that,  pest  and  in- 
fection are  roused  into  existence,  to  make  a  country  where  such 
men  have  lived  a  little  more  interesting.  Even  in  Java  I  have 
heard  of  such  travelers,  who  had  written  about  their  residence 
there,  relating  at  the  same  time  a  powerful  tiger  story  or  two, 
which  had  happened  to  themselves  of  course,  who  were  known 
never  to  have  left  Batavia  or  the  suburbs  the  whole  time  they 
staid  at  Java.  From  such  sources  the  upas  tree  received  its 
dreadful  poison,  which  kills  every  thing  living  around ;  from  such 
sources  five- sixths  of  all  the  tiger  stories  have  been  related  and 
printed ;  and  he  who  enters  a  place  of  this  description,  he  has 


BATAVIA.  523 

read  of,  and  has  filled  his  imagination  with  a  perfect  menagerie 
of  wild  beasts,  will  be  astonished  to  find  no  traces  of  these  dreaded 
animals.  I  believe  I  shall  not  be  far  wrong  in  saying,  that  of 
the  thousand  Europeans  now  living  in  Java,  not  two  have  seen 
a  tiger  in  the  wild  state,  except  once  in  a  while  at  a  great  hunt- 
ing party,  and  with  four  or  five  hundred  natives  for  drivers. 

The  first  impression  I  received  of  Java  was  extremely  pleas- 
ant ;  that  fine  ride  along  the  small  but  lively  little  stream  or 
canal,  between  two  rows  of  the  most  beautiful  villas  I  had  seen 
for  a  long  time,  with  the  fresh  green  of  a  luxurious  vegetation, 
the  fan  and  cocoa-palms,  the  stately  waringhis,  and  casuarinas, 
and  all  the  busy  life  of  the  dark  population — the  working  class 
is  confined  entirely  to  this  quarter — for  fruit-sellers  and  carriers, 
with  their  then  numerous,  tempting-looking  loads,  after  a  long 
sea-voyage — offering  a  cool  draught  after  a  quick  gallop  of  the 
small  but  lively  ponies — all  this  could  not  but  please  me  exceed- 
ingly ;  and  the  lofty  and  most  elegant  Hotel  der  Nederlanden  of 
Mr.  Hoger,  with  its  marble  slabs,  large  and  numerous  looking- 
glasses  and  astral  lamps,  its  shady  court-yard,  pleasant  rooms, 
and  yet  pleasanter  fare  which  awaited  us,  did  not  weaken  that 
impression. 

Here  I  also  found  German  newspapers,  but  it  would  have  been 
a  blessing  not  to  have  seen  them — poor  Germany  ! 

Thursday,  the  llth  of  November,  I  went  on  board  of  the 
"  Wilhelmine"  again,  to  take*  my  luggage  ashore,  and  I  really 
felt  sorry  to  leave  the  old  ship ;  I  had  staid  so  long  on  board,  and 
had  found  in  the  brave  captain  of  the  vessel  such  a  real  friend,  I 
was  reluctant  to  part  with  him — but  that  had  been  my  fate 
round  the  world,  to  find  friends  only  to  lose  and  leave  them  again, 
but  never  to  forget  them. 

During  my  first  days  in  Batavia  I  wanted  to  get  seasoned.  I 
was  not  only  a  stranger  in  town,  I  was  a  stranger  in  every  thing 
respecting  the  life  and  customs  around  me,  and  the  habits  of  the 
people — extremely  comfortable  as  they  may  have  been.  The 
whole  life,  in  fact,  was  too  comfortable,  too  luxurious  for  me  to  gtt 
used  to  so  quickly  ;  if  it  had  been  again  a  carnp  in  the  woods,  with 
a  single  blanket  to  roll  up  in,  and  a  piece  of  cold  meat  for  supper 
and  breakfast,  I  should  not  have  wanted  a  long  while  to  be  at 
home  ;  but  here,  the  sweet  and  sour,  hot  and  cold  victuals,  with 
the  complicated  contrivances  of  the  Lord  knows  how  many  pairs 


524  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

of  knives  and  forks,  finger-glasses  and  napkins,  the  continual 
changing  of  plates  by  careless  Malay  waiters,  who  will  always 
start  off  with  the  best  piece  upon  your  plate  if  you  take  your 
eyes  or  hands  off  only  a  moment,  made  rather  a  hard  trial  for  me 
for  the  first  two  or  three  days ;  but  I  got  used  to  it  in  a  short 
time.  Man  will  always  accommodate  himself  to  a  better  life 
more  readily  than  to  the  reverse. 

Another  thing  to  get  used  to,  was  the  Malay  language,  for  the 
entire  conversation  between  natives  or  Chinese,  wherever  these 
come  in  contact  with  white  persons,  is  Malay ;  and  though  I  had 
studied  the  language  a  good  deal,  rny  ear  had  to  get  used  to  the 
sound  before  I  could  catch  the  meaning  even  of  the  words  I  knew 
by  heart.  Most  singular  the  Malay  language  sounds,  particularly 
at  such  a  table,  where  there  are  a  quantity  of  things  the  Malays 
had  no  idea  of  till  Europeans  landed  on  their  shore,  having  no 
names  for  such  things,  and  being  obliged  to  accept  with  the  ob- 
ject, the  strange  name  it  bore  in  foreign  lands.  The  majority  of 
such  words,  nearly  all  in  fact,  come  from  the  Portuguese,  Spaniards, 
or  Dutch ;  and  I  laughed  excessively  on  hearing  one  of  the  Euro- 
peans call  to  the  grave  and  attentive  Malay,  "  Kassi  bottel  bier 
sama  korktreek — kassi  fricadellen,"  (give  a  bottle  of  beer  with 
corkscrew.) 

Most  disagreeable  sounded  to  me  at  first  the  eternal  calling  for 
fire,  of  the  colonists — awpee !  (api)  is  the  general  cry  after  dinner, 
as  well  as  before,  and  a  parcel  of  little  boys  are  employed  in  such 
hotels  having  hardly  any  thing  else  to  do  but  to  run  about  with  a 
kind  of  match,  made  of  the  bark  of  the  cocoa-nut,  lighted  in  their 
hands,  dodging  with  it  to  wherever  the  cry,  awpee  !  came  from. 
The  Dutch  are  so  used  to  have  every  thing  comfortable  (or  lekker, 
as  they  call  it),  and  not  to  touch  any  thing  in  the  world  that  a  Malay 
can  do  for  them,  that  I  have  seen  gentlemen  call  for  the  api,  while 
the  lighted  candle  was  standing  within  arm's  reach,  if  they  had 
only  raised  themselves  from  their  leaning  posture ;  but  no,  a 
servant  must  come,  maybe  from  the  further  end  of  the  room,  or 
even  house,  with  the  eternal  spark. 

Living  in  Batavia,  is,  as  you  may  judge,  tolerably  dear.  Hotel 
prices  are  (with  only  one  exception,  the  Amsterdam  Hotel,  where 
you  pay  four  gulden  or  roopiah  daily),  five  gulden  for  boarding 
and  lodging ;  besides  that,  you  must  have  a  carriage  every  day, 
which  costs  three  gulden  for  every  seven  hours  (a  gulden  or 


BATAVIA.  525 

roopiah  being  about  one  shilling  and  eightpence),  and  sometimes 
you  will  be  obliged  to  take  another  "carreta,"  in  the  evening  for 
another  three  gulden.  Wine,  like  all  other  drinks,  except  gin,  is 
extra.  Washing,  is  in  accordance  with  the  low  wages  of  the 
servants,  cheaper  than  any  where  else ;  it  is  ten  doits  a  piece. 
One  hundred  and  twenty  doits,  making  a  gulden  silver,  or  berak, 
that  gulden  silver  being  also  a  gulden  paper ;  but  only  so  called 
to  distinguish  it  from  a  gulden  copper ;  which  is  only  one  hun- 
dred doits. 

In  each  hotel  there  are  baths  for  the  free  use  of  every  guest, 
and  the  Dutch  have  every  thing  comfortable  in  their  hotels  as  in 
their  houses ;  but  the  most  comfortable  thing  after  all,  the  type 
of  all  ease  and  commodiousness,  is  their  morning-gown  or  night- 
dress, in  which  they  stay,  if  business  does  not  call  them  away, 
sometimes  the  whole  day,  till  five  or  six  o'clock,  for  dinner.  This 
morning-gown  costume  consists  of  two  articles — a  wide  cabaya 
open  before,  made  of  light  cotton  stuff,  which  reaches  nearly  down 
to  the  knees ;  and  a  wide  pair  of  pantaloons,  fastened  with  a  cord 
round  the  hips,  and  of  the  same  material  as  the  cabaya.  Full 
toilet  is  made  only  in  the  evening,  ladies  as  well  as  gentlemen 
appearing  in  full  dress ;  and  as  comfortable  as  the  other  dress  has 
been,  as  tight  and  uncomfortable  must  clothes  fit,  which  are  worn 
here,  as  in  every  large  European  town,  in  the  Parisian  fashion. 

Many  of  the  Chinese,  of  whom  there  are  several  millions  in 
Java  immensely  rich,  also  wanted  at  one  time  to  wear  European 
dresses  ;  but  as  many  of  them  look  very  much  like  Europeans, 
their  complexion  being  often  completely  white,  and  the  Dutch 
did  not  like  to  be  mistaken  for  a  race  which  is  thought  far  inferior 
to  Europeans,  government  would  not  allow  them  the  dress-coat, 
and  they  had  to  stick  to  their  tails.  The  Chinese  though  can 
become  ugly  customers  if  they  have  a  mind  to,  and  have  shown 
on  many  an  island  their  readiness  for  a  revolution.  In  Bat  a  via 
they  tried  several  times  to  subdue  the  whites,  and  a  place  is  yet 
called  "bitjara  tjina"  (Chinese  blood),  where  on  their  last  revolt 
they  were  driven  by  the  enraged  colonists  and  slaughtered. 

About  life  and  living  in  Batavia,  fruits  and  similar  things,  in- 
teresting as  they  were  to  me  at  first,  I  shall  say  nothing  more  ; 
all  descriptions  of  Java  treat  most  minutely  about  Batavia,  I  shall 
therefore  say  no  more  on  these  subjects,  but  try  to  give  the  reader 
an  idea  of  the  land  and  people  of  the  interior,  as  far  as  I  am  able. 


526  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

But  to  reach  the  interior  I  had  first  to  go  to  Buitenzorg  to  get 
a  passport ;  and  if  the  reader  never  has  been  in  a  Dutch  colony 
or  in  Austria,  he  can  form  no  idea  of  such  a  nuisance  as  the  pass: 
port  system  is  in  general,  and  here  in  particular.  The  Assistant- 
resident  in  Batavia  even  refused  to  give  me  a  passport  for  Buit- 
enzorg, only  forty  paalon  or  miles  from  Batavia,  where  his  Excel- 
lency the  Governor  resides,  and  a  countryman  of  mine,  a  merchant 
of  Batavia,  had  first  to  he  my  security ;  in  fact,  every  stranger 
must  have  two  securities  here,  if  he  intends  to  stay  only  a  week 
an  shore.  In  this  particular  case,  I  got  a  passport  for  five  days, 
with  every  thing  dreadful  threatened  should  I  disregard  the  orders 
of  the  police. 

To  Buitenzorg,  those  foreigners  who  are  settled  in  Batavia,  may 
go  without  passport,  but  no  farther ;  as  soon  as  they  enter  the 
neighboring  provinces,  the  Treanger  Hegentschapper  or  others, 
they  have  to  ask  a  passport  of  government,  and  then  will  not 
always  get  it,  for  even  Hollanders  have  been  refused  the  permis- 
sion to  enter  those  entirely  Javanese  provinces ;  particularly  if 
there  existed  the  slightest  suspicion  that  they  had  any  intention 
of  trading  with  the  native  "regents,"  or  of  tempting  them  to  buy 
precious  stones,  which  the  latter  are  always  willing — indeed, 
eager  to  purchase,  paying  for  them,  sometimes,  enormous  sums. 
Most  singularly,  Chinese  are  allowed  to  remain  and  trade  there ; 
indeed  these  people  enjoy  a  good  many  privileges  throughout  the 
country ;  and  I  think  justly  too,  for  they  are  nearly  the  only 
artisans,  mechanics,  and  tradesmen  in  town ;  and  just  such  an 
element  is  necessary  to  keep  the  far  more  slow  and  indolent  blood 
of  the  natives  circulating. 

Traveling  can  be  accomplished  easily  in  Java,  but  costs  a  great 
deal  of  money,  for  you  have  to  go  by  post,  paying  one  roopiah  and 
a  half  for  every  paal,  or  mile,  and  find  your  own  coach.  Where 
there  are  four,'  this  may  do  very  well,  but  for  a  single  person  it 
requires  a  fortune  merely  to  take  the  route  through  the  island  ; 
and  having  undertaken  my  journey  with  rather  meagre  supplies, 
there  was  no  possibility  of  my  following  such  a  course. 

There  was  another  way  to  travel — on  horseback ;  while  four 
post-horses  cost  one  hundred  and  eighty  doits,  I  could  get  a  riding- 
horse  for  ten  doits  ;  ay,  a  "  gladdar"  or  servant's  horse,  with  the 
man  upon  it,  for  five  doits,  not  quite  a  penny ;  but  Europeans,  in 
Batavia,  consider  it  impossible  for  a  new-comer  to  take  a  horse 


BATAVIA.  527 

and  ride  about  in  the  sun — I  was  therefore  running  the  greatest 
risk  imaginable,  and  would  be  taken  ill,  without  the  least  doubt 
in  the  world. 

But  there  was  an  easier  way — first  to  go  to  Buitenzorg,  the 
Sans  Soupi  of  the  Dutch,  for  a  regular  mail  was  running  there 
three  times  a  week,  for  ten  and  a  half  roopiahs  a  person ;  by  this 
I  determined  to  profit,  in  the  first  instance. 

I  wanted  to  spend  a  few  days  in  Batavia,  previously,  to  get 
used  to  the  climate  and  language,  before  I  ventured  to  throw 
myself  into  the  very  centre  of  this  new  life.  Therefore,  spending 
those  first  days  in  riding  about  through  the  different  parts  of  the 
town,  I  visited  before  all  the  rest  the  Chinese  quarter,  where  none 
but  Chinese  live,  and  ir?  houses  after  the  original  model. 

The  Chinese  are  distributed  through  every  part  of  the  old  town, 
as  well  as  the  suburbs,  or  garden  regions,  having  their  shops  and 
stores  in  every  place  where  there  is  the  least  chance  of  selling 
any  thing,  and  fruit  and  vegetable  stands,  out  to  the  farthest 
boundaries  of  Batavia ;  every  where  else,  they  only  live  scattered, 
but  in  this  quarter  they  concentrate  their  whole  force. 

As  soon  as  you  cross  in  this  place,  the  short  bridge  of  the  Rali 
Besaar,  you  are  amidst  the  Chinese  stores  ;  crowded  upon  each 
other,  in  their  low  and  narrow  stone  habitations,  the  interior  in- 
variably fitted  up  with  some  of  their  idol  pictures,  and  lamps, 
and  incense.  Tradesman  here  is  the  closest  neighbor  of  trades- 
man ;  most  of  them  squatting  upon  their  low  tables  before  their 
doors,  or  inside  in  the  large  and  open  windows.  Their  handi- 
crafts are  very  much  divided  in  this  quarter  ;  blacksmiths  and 
carpenters,  dyers,  and  varnishers  have  certain  regions,  where  they 
are,  if  not  the  entire  population,  most  certainly  the  majority — 
tailors  and  shoemakers  alone  seeming  to  have  the  privilege  of 
erecting  their  shops  wherever  they  saw  fit.  Other  stores  fill  up 
the  space,  only  here  and  there  alternated  by  an  eating-house,  to 
the  astonishment  of  the  spectator,  when  the  thought  strikes  him, 
who  can  buy,  where  every  body  seems  to  be  selling ;  but  the 
orang  Malay,  and  orang  goenoeng,  the  natives  from  the  lower 
and  high  land — those  who  live  here  or  in  the  neighborhood — the 
country-people  and  the  wagoners,  who  bring  nearly  all  the  produce 
to  town,  form  a  large  part  of  their  customers  ;  while  the  country 
is  so  thickly  populated,  Chinamen  too  forming  a  very  great  part 
of  the  wealthy  community,  promising  success  to  nearly  all  these 


528  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

traders,  if  they  are  only  persevering  and  industrious,  as  Chinese 
almost  always  are. 

Ironware  and  finery,  basket-work  and  earthenware,  dry  goods 
and  groceries,  drug  stores  and  tobacco  stands,  tea-shops,  and 
trades  of  all  descriptions,  form  here  one  solid  mass  ;  every  one  of 
these  narrow  low  streets  cross  each  other,  while  the  canal  seems 
to  run  every  where,  forming  with  its  small  bridges  just  as  many 
by-lanes  and  cross-cuts  here  and  there,  so  that  a  stranger  if  he 
do  not  keep  his  direction  by  the  sun,  is  sure  to  lose  himself. 

In  this  perfect  wilderness  of  houses  and  streets,  or  stores  and 
lanes,  a  busy  industrious  people  are  swarming,  unwearied  in  oc- 
cupation through  all  the  days  in  the  week,  from  daylight  till  sun- 
set warns  the  restless  multitude  of  commg  night,  and  checks  the 
buzzing  and  clattering,  hammering,  rattling,  sawing,  and  other 
sounds  that  indicate  the  presence,  in  this  strange  quarter  of  a 
strange  town,  of  the  noisy  machinery  of  human  industry  and 
labor. 

The  Chinese  are  certainly  the  most  industrious  and  persevering 
race  1  have  ever  met  with,  and  they  bear,  as  far  as  their  trade 
and  trading  goes,  particularly  in  a  small  way,  an  extraordinary 
resemblance  to  our  Jews.  A  Chinese  merchant  is  never  to  be 
put  out  of  countenance  :  if  he  asks  you  a  price,  and  you  give  him 
a  bid,  no  matter  how  low — he  has  got  you — you  are  done — you 
must  buy  something.  They  are  also  ready  to  carry  their  goods, 
be  the  heat  what  it  may,  to  any  place  where  they  expect  to  sell 
some,  if  ever  so  little,  just  like  our  Jews  ;  but  they  have  that  ex- 
traordinary partiality  for  work,  that  where  they  can  not  make  a 
good  living  by  trading  or  speculation,  they  are  just  as  well  satis- 
fied to  take  hold  of  hammer  or  file,  of  needle  or  awl,  and  be  as  per- 
severing at  this  work  as  at  their  trading. 

Principally  to  find  some  characteristic  Chinese  goods,  I  walked 
this  quarter  over  and  over  again.  Any  thing  in  the  world  I  could 
have  got  here  with  the  greatest  ease,  except  Chinese  goods. 
European  porcelain,  little  knickknacks  and  fine  wares,  silk  um- 
brellas, silk  and  cotton  handkerchiefs,  Nuremberg  wares,  French 
prints  and  German  calicoes  were  in  abundance  ;  but  of  real 
Chinese  goods  there  was  hardly  any  thing  but  tea,  some  stone- 
ware and  porcelain,  China  ink,  paper  umbrellas,  white  paint  (for 
the  faces  of  the  fair),  and  some  Chinese  household  medicines, 
brought  over  with  them  from  the  old  country. 


BATAVIA.  529 

Interesting  to  the  stranger,  were  said  to  be  these  Chinese 
"  pasar  malam,"  or  market  evenings ;  and  I  went  there  one 
night  with  a  carreta  and  some  friend  to  guide  me  through  the 
different  parts.  Already  from  afar  a  wild,  noisy  music,  with 
singing,  howling,  and  screaming,  struck  our  ears,  accompanied  by 
the  sounding  of  cymbals,  the  beating  of  drums,  and  the  striking 
of  gongs.  In  the  middle  of  the  market-place  near  which  we  left 
the  carriage  to  wait  for  us,  a  large  bamboo  scaffold,  intended  for 
a  theatre,  was  erected.  It  looked  very  much  like  a  large  open 
dove-cot,  or  an  overgrown  rice-hut — little  buildings  they  used  to 
put  in  the  rice-field,  upon  long  bamboo  poles  to  overlook  the 
fields  and  frighten  off  the  birds.  This  theatre  was  lighted  up  by 
some  large  iron  pans,  filled  with  cocoa-nut  oil,  in  which  a  couple 
of  thick  wicks  were  burning,  shedding  a  glaring,  unsteady  light 
around.  The  orchestra,  a  singular  band  of  noisy  rascals,  each  of 
whom  cared  only  to  maintain  his  own  noise,  was  set  upon  the 
scene,  wherever  this  could  find  room.  The  theatre  had  no  side- 
scenes,  only  two  back  doors.  Upon  the  scene  a  kind  of  table  or 
altar  was  standing,  and  a  couple  of  boxes  with  old  costumes, 
beards,  &c.,  out  of  which  the  actors,  turning  their  backs  upon 
the  spectators,  supplied  their  wants  and  altered  their  characters, 
even  in  the  very  midst  of  their  dialogue  or  gesticulating.  There 
is  a  great  deal  of  time  saved  by  such  a  proceeding ;  and  the 
ladies  in  our  country,  who  always  want  such  a  dreadful  long 
time  for  changing  their  dresses,  ought  to  profit  by  this  hint. 

While  the  actors  were  playing,  and  playing  in  every  sense 
of  the  word — making  the  most  of  the  occasion — striking  long 
sticks  they  held  in  their  hands  about  them,  screaming  at  the 
same  time  as  if  they  were  suffering  under  the  most  dreadful 
toothache  or  other  calamity,  and  throwing  about  their  arms  and 
legs  in  a  manner  to  puzzle  the  beholder  to  guess  where  were 
their  joints  :  the  room  between  them  and  the  musicians — a  small 
kind  of  gangway  about  two  feet  wide — was  filled  with  little 
urchins,  who  had  climbed  up  the  posts,  to  profit  by  the  spectacle. 
But  it  was  a  difficult  position  to  maintain,  between  the  active 
musicians  behind  them,  and  the  raving  actors  before ;  now 
knocked  on  the  head  by  a  careless  cymbal,  with  a  "  tsching  !" 
and  threatened  continually  by  half-a-dozen  swinging  sticks  in 
rapid  motion,  with  no  place  to  dodge  and  hide,  they  were  forced 
to  take  a  rather  painful  interest  in  the  performance. 

Z 


530  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

Singular,  too,  seemed  to  me  the  turning  of  the  hands  of  the 
performers — a  motion  I  subsequently  noticed  in  all  the  Malayan 
and  Sunda  dancers — stretching  them  out  as  far  as  they  can,  and 
bending  the  palms  back  to  the  utmost,  the  ^apparently  twist  the 
joint  of  their  elbows  perfectly  round,  turning  and  screwing  the 
upper  parts  of  their  bodies,  as  if  some  part  had  come  loose,  and 
could  not  be  kept  in  its  place  any  more,  under  any  circumstances. 

The  dialogue,  which  they  keep  up  at  the  highest  pitch  of  their 
voices,  must  have  been  interesting,  for  the  Chinese  spectators 
watch  the  actors  with  the  utmost  attention  ;  while  often  bursts 
of  roaring  laughter  mark  a  happy  pun,  a  stroke  of  wit,  or  a 
pleasant  allusion ;  and  they  immediately  relate  the  joke,  with 
their  broad  and  laughing  features,  to  such  of  their  neighbors  as 
have  not  caught  the  exact  meaning,  or  to  others  who  had  just 
dropped  in,  and  are  pressing  nearer  eagerly  to  hear  the  noisy  mer- 
riment. 

These  spectators  were,  in  fact,  far  more  interesting  to  me  than 
the  actors ;  they  were,  in  fact,  acting  a  kind  of  play  themselves 
— for  me  at  least,  though  unconsciously  to  themselves ;  for  though 
I  had  seen  a  good  many  of  the  race  in  California,  I  had  never 
met  such  a  jovial,  happy,  and  comfortable-looking  crowd  of  them 
in  my  life  ;  and  sometimes  I  shut  my  eyes,  trying  to  think  I  was 
dreaming,  though  the  actors  were  screaming  grim  reality  into  my 
ears  at  the  time.  I  opened  them  again,  to  be  pleased  anew  to 
find  those  singular  sons  of  China,  we  in  Europe  know  principally 
by  the  paintings  on  tea-boxes  and  trays,  with  their  grinning  coun- 
tenances raised  up  toward  the  glaring  cocoa-nut  flames,  standing 
around  me  joyously  swinging  their  tails. 

The  theatre  was  a  riddle  to  me  ;  standing  there  by  itself,  in 
the  middle  of  the  free  and  open  market-place,  it  had  to  grant  free 
admission  to  all  who  required  it.  Seats  there  were  none  ;  but 
the  spectators  stopped,  as  their  inclination  led  them,  a  longer  or 
a  shorter  time  before  the  scene,  where  the  musicians  unweariedly 
played  the  same  things  over  and  over  again.  Whence  did  these 
men  get  paid  for  so  much  exertion  ?  for  it  was  not  to  be  expected 
that  a  disinterested  partiality  for  the  art  should  induce  them  to 
play  gratuitously  about  six  hours  every  evening.  I,  however,  soon 
learned  that  the  theatre  was  allowed  gratis,  less  for  the  amuse- 
ment of  the  public  than  as  a  bait  in  general,  and  was  kept  here 
with  exactly  the  same  intention  as  those  large  orchestras  were 


BATAVIA.  531 

maintained  in  the  gambling-houses  of  San  Francisco.  Not  far 
from  the  theatre,  also  lighted  up  by  large  cocoa-nut  oil  lamps, 
the  flames  of  which  threw  a  red  glare  over  half-a-dozen  mats, 
stretched  out  upon  the  ground,  and  over  some  low  tables,  upon 
which,  not  round  them,  a  lot  of  Chinese  were  squatting,  watching 
eagerly  the  rolling  dice  or  small  cards,  and  betting  not  unfrequently 
heavy  sums  of  money. 

These  gambling-tables,  as  poor  and  dirty  as  they  look,  are 
leased  out  by  the  Dutch  government,  like  the  sale  of  opium,  for 
enormous  sums ;  and  though  I  do  not  see  how  it  is  possible  for 
the  renters  to  pay  this,  as  well  as  the  costs  of  lights,  the  theatre, 
and  other  expenses,  they  must  make  a  great  deal  of  money  by  the 
arrangement ;  for  they  are  all  extremely  eager  to  enter  into  con- 
tract about  it  with  government.  The  Chinese,  as  well  as  the 
Malays,  particularly  the  last,  are  madly  fond  of  gambling ;  coolies, 
too,  who  have  earned  a  lew  doits  by  the  sweat  of  their  brow, 
toiling  for  days,  are  just  as  apt  to  sit  down  by  the  road-side  and 
gamble  away  their  whole  wages,  leaving  afterward  perfectly  sat- 
isfied that  they  had  spent  their  money  in  a  gentlemanly  way, 
with  the  best  will  in  the  world  to  recommence  their  toil.  These 
men  are  of  course  led  to  such  places  by  a  fascination  they  can  not, 
or  will  not  withstand  ;  and  they  gamble  away  there  almost  every 
thing  they  have  ;  filling  with  their  doits  the  treasury  of  the  state, 
and  impoverishing  themselves. 

I  had  a  great  notion  of  moralizing  about  the  Butch  govern- 
ment, ruining  their  subjects  in  this  legal,  yet  shameful  way;  but  I 
.  had  not  the  heart  knowing  that  our  German  governments  calling 
themselves  the  most  enlightened  in  the  world,  and  thinking  so 
too,  perhaps — lease  out  hazard-tables  and  play  lottery  themselves 
exactly  in  the  same  manner.  As  long  as  we,  in  our  civilized 
Europe,  while  sending  annually  so  many  missionaries  to  bring  to 
heathens  the  blessings  of  our  Church,  suffer  such  iniquities,  we 
ought  not  to  grumble  about  such  tricks  being  practiced  upon  these 
poor  wretched  heathens  and  Turks. 

Passing  in  the  day  time  through  this  Chinese  quarter,  I  was 
rather  astonished  to  see  upon  a  great  many  houses  earthen  pots — 
not  unlike  our  flower-pots,  but  more  rounded  at  the  bottom,  and 
larger — fastened  upon  the  roofs ;  and  I.  heard  afterward,  from 
several  old  settlers,  the  reason  of  this  peculiarity.  These  pots  are 
put  upon  the  roof  where  a  marriageable  girl  is  in  the  house,  and 


532  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

their  situation  is  said  to  denote  all  the  particulars.  Many  of  them 
apparently  very  old,  having  cactuses  growing  in  them,  as  house- 
leeks  grow  in  our  country  upon  the  roofs,  seemed  no  particular 
recommendation.  But  if  they  really  possess  the  meaning  they 
are  said  to  have,  they  speak  very  much  for  the  honesty  and  can- 
didness  of  the  Chinese  ladies  ;  for  I  am  sure,  if  such  a  fashion 
prevailed  in  Europe,  the  fair  creatures  whose  symbols  were  braving 
the  storms  on  their  roofs,  would  find  some  plan  to  prevent  them 
looking  too  old  and  weather-beaten,  or  renew  them  occasionally 
by  others  of  more  decent  appearance — at  least  they  would  not 
allow  house-leek  to  grow  in  them,  if  only  to  save  appearances. 

In  Norway  there  is  said  to  exist  a  similar  custom — but  in  the 
interior  of  the  houses — to  denote  the  same  thing  ;  copper  kettles 
being  hung  up,  in  a  rather  prosaic  way,  giving  by  their  number 
a  tolerable  true  account  of  the  girl's  dowry;  but  this  may  be  only 
a  fable. 

I  was  fortunate  enough  to  witness  some  time  afterward  a 
Chinese  marriage — at  least  the  ceremony  of  leading  the  bride 
from  her  father's  house  into  the  carriage,  and  from  the  vehicle 
to  the  temple — while  I  was  standing  nearly  an  hour  up  to  my 
ankles  in  mud,  in  the  midst  of  a  swarm  of  long  and  short-tailed 
Chinese  men,  women,  and  children.  I  could  never  have  had  so 
much  patience  to  wait  the  corning  of  the  lady  under  such  dis- 
agreeable circumstances  as  soft  mud  is  to  thin  calf-skin  boots,  if 
a  band  of  musicians  had  not  kept  up  during  the  time  so  dreadful 
a  noise,  with  such  dreadful  instruments,  and  in  such  a  dreadful 
way.  I  was  so  astonished,  and,  in  fact,  so  taken  by  surprise,  that 
I  did  not  recover  my  senses  till  the  bride  arrived.  The  violin 
with  two  strings,  and  a  squeak  instead  of  a  sound,  seemed  to  be  the 
chief  instrument ;  while  a  large  drum  and  cymbals,  gongs,  and  a 
certain  kind  of  rattle-boxes,  always  joined  at  a  time  you  least  ex- 
pected them.  Each  of  the  musicians  was  playing,  as  it  seemed, 
his  own  favorite  melody  in  his  own  measure,  caring  not  a  straw 
for  the  rest ;  and  I  would  have  given  any  thing  to  have  been  able 
to  stenograph  those  sounds,  only  to  let  the  reader  have  the  benefit 
of  them. 

A  large  carriage,  ornamented  with  all  kinds  of  red  silk  and 
plumes,  drove  up  before  the  door,  and  then  the  bride  appeared, 
throwing  every  thing  around  her  of  course  entirely  in  the  shade. 

I  am  a  poor  describer  of  ladies'  dresses — still  I  will  try  to  give 


BATAVIA.  533 

my  fair  readers  at  least  some  idea  of  how  she  looked.  She  wore 
a  parti-colored  silk  dress,  sprinkled  over  with  innumerable  small 
flowers  and  blossoms,  which  fell  down  to  the  ground,  where  some 
bricks  had  been  laid  to  form  a  kind  of  path- way  for  the  lady 
and  her  followers.  Small  feet  she  most  certainly  had,  for  she  be- 
longed to  the  higher  class,  as  it  seemed,  and  was  only  able  to 
move  inch  by  inch,  while  a  couple  of  bridesmaids,  wading  at 
her  side,  were  supporting  or  guarding  her  on  each  flank.  Only 
now  and  then  could  I  see  the  broad  tips  of  her  tiny  feet  (clumsy, 
1  had  better  say)  come  forward,  but  slide  back  directly,  as  if  afraid 
.  of  the  light.  Her  hair  was  made  up,  of  course,  a  la  Chinoise, 
but  upon  it  she  wore  a  kind  of  diadem,  which  ran  out  crown-like, 
while  from  its  farthest  points,  thin  silken  cords  were  hanging  all 
around  ;  and  on  the  lowest  end  little  trinkets,  pearls,  corals,  and 
beads,  rnaybe  precious  stones  and  jewels  were  dangling,  reach- 
ing down  in  front  over  her  eyes,  and  striking  together,  while  she 
passed  me  with  a  low  ringing  sound.  She  had  painted  herself 
white,  or  rather  gray,  and  never  raised  her  eyes  during  her  pas- 
sage to  the  carriage ;  in  conformance  with  the  customary  rites 
which  do  not  allow  her  to  lift  her  head  nor  look  upon  the  bride- 
groom till  actually  wedded  to  him. 

What  ailed  the  two  girls,  who  had  feet  large  enough  to  keep 
any  lady  steady,  I  know  not,  but  they  were  shaking  their  heads 
all  the  time,  apparently  not  at  all  satisfied  with  the  proceeding. 
Close  to  the  door  of  the  carriage,  at  the  moment  the  bride  was 
entering,  two  men,  most  likely  some  of  her  relatives,  stepped,  hold- 
ing upside  down  an  old  rice  sieve  high  over  her  head,  under  which 
she  passed.  The  bridegroom,  a  thin,  awkward,  but  not  bad-look- 
ing Chinese,  followed  ;  and  I  liked  his  feet  the  least  of  his  person, 
for  he  stepped  with  one  of  them  upon  my  toes,  while  passing  me. 
The  train  now  moved  off,  while  some  of  the  violins  seemed  to 
have  turned  crazy,  and  were  scratching  away  as  though  to  scare 
the  drums  and  gongs  into  a  softer  noise.  About  ten  or  twelve 
wagons  followed  with  the  parents,  the  nearest  relations,  and  sev- 
eral acquaintances  ;  then  some  girls,  most  likely  dancers  or  such 
like,  in  their  shortest  dress,  waded  through  the  mud  after  the 
wagons. 

Before  the  door,  and  about  ten  yards  distant  on  the  other  side 
of  the  road,  three  Dutch  soldiers,  in  their  uniforms  and  carrying 
their  muskets,  marched  up  and  down  as  long  as  the  ceremony 


534  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

lasted  ;  for  what  reason,  Heaven  and  these  heroes  only  knew,  for 
as  soon  as  the  carriage  drove  off  they  grounded  their  arms,  and 
in  different  directions  sauntered  down  the  street. 

During  the  whole  festivity,  and  as  long, as  the  carriage  was 
standing  before  the  door,  even  while  it  was  driving  off,  the  Chinese 
boys  amused  themselves  with  letting  off  crackers  and  other  fire- 
works— a  common  amusement  with  them,  but  one  which  seemed 
to  me  somewhat  reckless  here  among  dry  bamboo  huts,  and  straw, 
and  other  combustibles  scattered  every  where,  which,  if  ignited 
by  a  stray  spark,  would  have  laid  that  quarter  of  the  city  in 
ashes  in  a  few  minutes. 


CHAPTER  II. 

A    RIDE    INTO    THE    INTERIOR    OF    JAVA. 

SATURDAY,  the  15th  of  November,  the  mail-coach  for  Buiten- 
zorg started  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  ;  and  what  a  blessing 
this  coach  was,  in  comparison  to  the  royal  mails  of  Australia  ! — 
(to  think  of  them  only,  makes  my  bones  ache).  Four  small,  but 
lively  animals  carried  the  easy  and  comfortable  mail-coach  toward 
Buitenzorg,  and  along  the  smooth,  even  road,  through  a  perfect 
paradise  of  gardens  and  flowers.  But  so  much  for  old  habits — I 
was  so  used  to  connect  the  word  mail  with  an  uncertain  number 
of  passengers  crowded  into  one  small  box,  that  I  expected  at  every 
turn  of  the  road  to  see  some  ten  or  twelve  other  passengers  rise 
up,  and  require  to  be  taken  along  by  the  easily-satisfied  coach- 
man. But  we  were  left  unmolested  in  the  possession  of  our  paid- 
for  places,  and  after  a  delicious  ride,  through  fields  and  planta- 
tions, gardens  and  sawas  (rice-fields)  taken  along  the  road  at 
about  nine  knots  an  hour,  reaching  Buitenzorg,  thirty-nine  paalen 
distant,  toward  ten  o'clock. 

These  roads,  and  in  fact  all  the  roads  through  Java,  are  divided 
by  paalen  or  posts,  which  are  set  up  regularly  through  the  whole 
island.  The  distance  between  them  is  said  to  be  exactly  an 
English  mile  ;  for  I  heard  it  asserted  several  times,  that  the  paalen 
had  originated  at  the  time  the  English  held  possession  of  this  ter- 
ritory ;  still,  if  it  could  not  be  attributed  to  the  swiftness  of  the 
little  animals,  these  paalen  seemed  to  me  somewhat  shorter  than 
an  English  mile,  and  I  really  believe  they  are. 

Every  four  or  five  miles,  sheds  are  built  across  the  street,  to 
allow  the  carriage  to  stop  under  a  shelter,  if  it  should  happen  to 
rain,  or  as  a  protection  against  the  rays  of  the  sun.  Each  car- 
riage has,  besides  the  coachman,  two  drivers — half-naked  fellows, 
who  stand  on  a  board  fixed  purposely  for  them  behind  the  wagon, 
and  keep  up,  during  the  whole  time  the  horses  are  running,  an 
uninterrupted  noise  with  hallooing  and  screaming,  jumping  down 


536  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

occasionally,  particularly  when  the  road  rises  a  little,  and  the 
horses  seem  disposed  to  run  somewhat  slower,  and  passing  the 
wagon  at  a  run,  they  crack  their  whips  at  the  animals  and  yell 
at  them  till  they  cause  them  once  more  to  put  forth  all  their 
powers  ;  then  slackening  their  pace  for  an  instant  to  allow  the 
carriage  to  pass  them,  they  jump  up  behind  to  their  old  places, 
and  begin  again  to  scream  and  bawl. 

The  coachman,  who  wore  the  common  flat  and  broad  bam- 
boo hat,  held  the  reins  all  the  time  in  one  hand,  without  seem- 
ing to  guide  the  horses  in  the  least ;  in  fact,  I  do  not  know  how 
he  could  have  done  so,  having  them  all  in  one  bunch,  not  even 
divided  by  his  fingers,  and  sitting  there  on  his  high  box,  as  it 
seemed,  far  more  for  ornament  than  use.  My  fellow-passengers 
asserted  that  they  thought  he  was  put  up  there,  only  to  make 
the  affair  look  more  symmetrical  and  coach-like  ;  while  the  two 
men  on  the  right  and  left  were  doing  the  whole  driving  and 
guiding  together.  These,  however,  changed  with  the  horses  at 
every  post. 

The  post-road  through  Java  is  equal  to  the  best  of  the  kind  I 
have  ever  seen  in  Germany,  and  seems  to  have  been  built  in 
spite  of  a  great  many  difficulties.  One  of  the  former  governors, 
sowing  a  blessing  for  futurity,  though  a  curse  for  his  time,  forced 
the  natives  to  finish  it  within  a  certain  period,  while  he  threat- 
ened some  of  the  Regents  who  talked  of  impossibilities,  with 
hanging  them  and  all  the  district — in  short,  executed  some  as 
I  was  told — not  only  for  refusing  their  help,  but  for  not  com- 
mencing the  work  at  once  in  goodwill — and  the  road  was  made. 

To  keep  it  in  this  good  state,  the  heavy  two-wheeled  carts 
which  bring  the  produce  from  the  plantations  to  the  sea-shore, 
are  not  allowed  to  use  it ;  but  have  to  follow  with  their  slow 
unhandy  teams  a  road  which  frequently  leads  close  on  one  side 
of  the  mail-road,  following  the  straightest  course,  and  being 
always  cut  up  dreadfully  by  the  sharp  heavy  wheels  of  the  carts 
and  the  sharper  hoofs  of  the  carbos  or  buffaloes. 

But  the  scenery  ? — my  heart  expanded  while  I  was  taken  by 
the  wild  flight  of  the  horses  through  these  beautiful  groves. 
Above  me  the  waving  cocoa  trees  nodded  their  feathery  crowns, 
the  broad  banana  leaves  rustled  and  whispered,  the  blossoms  of 
various  plants  and  trees  were  streaming  out  their  sweet  odors, 
wafting  them  with  the  fresh  breeze  along  the  plain,  and  refresh- 


A  RIDE  INTO  THE  INTERIOR  OF  JAVA,  537 

ing  our  nerves  while  cooling  our  cheeks ;  and  deep  in  the  shade 
of  the  cool  and  quiet  groves  low  bamboo-huts  were  standing,  half 
hid  in  blossoms  and  fruits,  and  slender  though  dark  forms  moved 
light  and  graceful  under  their  palms. 

Many  of  the  white  inhabitants  of  these  climes  would  most 
likely  smile,  if  they  read  this  description  of  a  place  which  is  con- 
tinually before  them,  and  in  which  they  have  found,  perhaps,  not 
a  whit  more  of  poetry  or  picturesqueness  than  we  find  in  our 
towns  or  country  places.  They  might  call  this  an  exaggerated 
description,  and  say  I  had  painted  an  every-day  life  with  falla- 
cious, and  therefore  not  true  colors  ;  but  they  forget  in  that  case, 
that  a  disinterested  foreigner  is  very  apt  to  consider  strange  people 
and  their  strange  homes  in  quite  another  light  to  that  in  which 
these  strange  people  see  it.  I,  at  least,  did  not  consider  them  in 
the  way  of  working  machines  or  pack-mules,  only  good  enough  to 
raise  the  produce  for  their  white  masters,  and  then  carry  it  to 
town  ;  but  as  men,  as  human  beings — people  in  fact  that  God 
Almighty  must  have  loved  as  His  best  and  dearest  children,  while 
giving  them  this  Paradise  for  a  home.  And  this  luxurious 
vegetation,  offering  with  scarcely  any  labor  every  thing  to 
man  that  he  requires,  or  could  enjoy,  is,  and  will  be  a  silent  but 
powerful  reproach  to  the  whites,  who  have  forced  these  children 
of  the  South  to  an  employment  nature  never  intended  for  them. 
But  if  you  speak  about  this  to  one  of  the  Dutch,  they  always 
maintain  that  the  natives  never  led  a  better  life  under  their  own 
princes,  having  been  obliged  to  work  and  toil  for  them  as  they 
now  do  for  the  Europeans  ;  this  1  shall  not  deny  ;  but  they  were 
their  own  natural  chiefs,  of  their  own  kindred  and  blood,  and  an 
improvement  of  their  situations  lay  at  that  time  in  their  power — 
but  how  is  it  now  ? 

But  all  is  not  lost  yet.  Have  we  not,  in  former  times,  felt  the 
heel  of  the  powerful  upon  our  necks  ?  and  have  we  not  shaken 
off,  at  least,  a  great  part  of  the  burden  ?  These  reflections  do 
not  blame  the  Dutch  for  having  conquered  and  civilized  the 
natives  ;  no,  they  have  done  nothing  but  what  England,  France, 
America,  and  all  other  nations  that  have  colonies  had  done  be- 
fore, and  are  doing  now.  Our  philanthropists  of  the  present 
time,  let  them  say  to  the  contrary  whatever  they  please,  do  not 
look  as  the  final  aim  of  civilization,  for  the  cultivation  and  felicity 
of  man  ;  but  insist  on  making  every  acre  of  ground  yield  the 

z* 


638  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

utmost ;  and  upon  that  idea  they  act.  No,  I  am  very  far  from 
blaming  the  Dutch  in  particular  for  having  subdued  these  tribes 
(if  they  had  not  done  it,  the  English  would  have  most  certainly 
civilized  the  country) ;  for,  from  all  that  I  have  seen  in  this  part 
of  the  globe,  I  really  and  sincerely  believe  the  Dutch  to  be  the 
best  colonists  in  the  world.  The  natives  are  not  driven,  in  gen- 
eral, to  their  work — for  exceptions  there  are  every  where  and 
under  all  circumstances — they  have  certain  things  to  do,  which 
they  know,  and  they  at  the  same  time  get  a  certain  payment  for  ; 
they  have  overseers  to  secure  the  performance  of  this  work — for 
the  Malay  takes  very  good  care  not  to  exert  himself  unnecessa- 
rily with  too  hard  a  task.  But  one  thing  lightens  their  burden, 
and  this  is,  the  Dutch  alone  of  all  nations  allow  the  tolerant  and 
reasonable  privilege — liberty  of  religion.  They  do  not  rob  them 
of  their  free  will  and  their  gods  at  the  same  time,  bowing  down 
their  bodies,  and  frequently  crushing  their  spirits,  as  we  have 
seen  only  too  many  examples ;  but  leave  all  religious  matters  to 
God  Almighty  ;  and  the  natives  prove,  by  their  behavior,  how 
judiciously  they  have  acted. 

But  there  happen  cases  of  tyranny  occasionally  :  and  under  a 
former  governor,  some  residents — as  the  first  magistrates  of  every 
district  are  called — who  received  a  per  centage  of  all  the  produce 
for  export  which  is  raised,  forced  the  natives  to  work  so  much  in 
the  coffee  and  sugar  plantations,  from  which  they  derived  large 
profits,  as  entirely  to  take  the  latter  from  their  own  rice-fields, 
which  they  had  to  neglect.  A  famine  being  in  that  case  una- 
voidable, rice  had  to  be  imported  from  Pondicherry  (1845),  to  a 
country  which  is  capable  of  raising  enough  to  supply  the  whole 
market  of  Europe.  Many  of  those  poor  and  unhappy  natives 
fled  to  Batavia,  or  the  nearest  towns,  only  to  keep  from  starving, 
and  several  are  said  to  have  died  of  hunger  in  this  Paradise. 

The  present  Governor,  wherever  I  heard  him  spoken  of,  is  gen- 
erally esteemed ;  but,  by  many  of  the  old  officers,  equally  fear- 
ed ;  for  he  has  taken  hold  of  the  reins  of  government  with  rather 
a  rough  hand,  exposing  and  punishing  many  an  old  abuse  of  pub- 
lic confidence,  or  act  of  petty  tyranny,  without  asking  who  the 
offender  was,  or  what  he  had  been.  He  wishes  to  introduce 
more  humane  principles,  and  intends  to  do  away  entirely,  or 
weaken  the  right  which  the  whites  at  present  exercise,  to  make 
the  natives  work  in  their  plantations  whether  they  like  it  or  not. 


A  RIDE  INTO  THE  INTERIOR  OF  JAVA.  539 

He  will  have  a  great  majority  of  the  planters  against  him 
though  ;  for  it  is  not  unlike  the  slavery  question.  Still,  human- 
ity must  conquer  finally,  and  millions  of  natives  will  bless  his 
exertions. 

On  leaving  the  neighborhood  of  Batavia,  and  its  numerous 
beautiful  villas  and  gardens,  and  then  the  little  bamboo-huts, 
lying  in  the  shade  of  their  own  cocoa-nut  trees  or  sirih  planta- 
tions, that  here  commenced,  the  view  suddenly  opened  before  us; 
and  out  of  the  far  and  blueish  background  those  rough  volcanic 
masses  rose,  that  form  the  backbone,  not  alone  of  Java,  but  of  all 
that  long  stretch  of  islands,  Bali,  Lambok,  &c.,  even  to  Timor; 
while  farther  on,  to  our  right  and  left,  spread  open  rice-fields. 
Here  I  recognized  for  the  first  time  the  real  peculiarity  of  the 
country. 

The  rice  is  to  the  inhabitants  of  Java,  and  in  fact  all  the  East 
Indies,  the  same  as  the  taro-root  is  to  the  Hawaiian,  or  the  bread- 
fruit to  the  South  Sea  Islands.  Those  fields  give  at  the  same 
time,  a  most  singular  appearance  to  the  country,  with  their  small 
square  or  long  partitions,  spreading  fan-like  around  the  hill-slopes, 
and  down  into  the  valley ;  holding  in  a  low  brim  of  thrown-up 
ground  the  descending  water,  which  they  let  out  only  through  a 
small  spout-like  opening,  for  the  benefit  of  the  lower  fields.  The 
water  is  divided  and  used  in  such  an  extraordinary  practical 
manner,  as  to  bring  it  every  where,  even  to  the  smallest  little 
corner  or  nook,  where  it  is  wanted:  spots  two  and  three  feet 
broad,  are  dammed  up  sometimes  and  watered  ;  indeed,  every 
place  that  would  yield  a  handful  of  rice  is  cultivated.  And 
strewn  over  these  fields — like  an  oasis  over  a  surrounding  open  plain 
— over  this  desert  of  rice-fields  small  and  shady  groves  arise,  out 
of  whose  centre,  tall  areka-nut  palms,  or  cocoa-nut  trees  lift  their 
heads,  seemingly  escaping  from  out  of  a  wild  thicket  of  mangos, 
rnangistan,  shaddock,  and  bamboo.  But  these  groves  are  hollow, 
and  each  incloses  a  little  world  of  its  own,  a  miniature  Paradise, 
with  every  thing  free  and  happy  in  it — but  man. 

As  well  as  rice,  the  Javanese  cultivates  for  himself  the  sirih, 
to  chew ;  for  all  the  rest,  including  areka  and  cocoa-nut,  grow 
without  further  aid,  if  once  planted. 

The  sirih  is  a  vine,  not  unlike  in  its  leaf  to  the  black  pepper, 
growing  upon  trees  that  are  planted  for  this  purpose.  Of  the 
plant  the  leaf  alone  is  used ;  it  is  to  be  chewed  with  lime,  tobacco, 


540  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

and  some  other  nasty  stuffs.  The  lips  or  teeth  are  colored  red 
by  the  operation,  the  breath  smells  disgustingly  sweet,  the  cheeks 
are  swelled  by  lumps  of  this  stuff,  while  an  ugly  red  juice  is 
always  hanging  upon  the  mouth.  The  natives  say  that  they  are 
obliged  to  chew  it  for  the  preservation  of  their  teeth  ;  but  man 
has,  of  course,  an  excuse  for  every  bad  habit ;  and  all  wild  na- 
tions have  beautiful  teeth — even  those  that  never  heard  of  sirih. 

Buitenzorg — that  beautiful  little  village,  with  its  splendid  villas 
and  glorious  scenery,  is  the  principal  residence  of  his  Excellency 
the  Governor,  and  enjoys  one  of  the  best — I  really  believe  I  may 
say  the  best — botanical  garden  in  the  world.  That  of  Sydney 
could  surpass  it,  on  account  of  its  situation  between  the  hot  and 
the  moderate  latitude,  if  the  ground  there  was  not  too  poor,  and 
if  the  Sydney  legislature  took  any  interest  in  such  an  "  unneces- 
sary luxury/'  as  they  seem  to  think  it.  But  every  thing,  climate 
and  soil,  as  well  as  the  attention  bestowed  upon  it,  and  the  means 
to  do  what  is  required,  favor  this  spot ;  and  the  present  gardener, 
Mr.  Teismann,  has  made  it  a  treat  to  walk  through  this  place, 
and  admire  the  immense  quantity  and  variety  of  plants,  collected 
here  in  this  comparatively  small  iriclosure. 

Interesting  to  me,  nearly  before  all  other  things,  was  a  collec- 
tion of  the  spices,  which  are  grown  here  in  all  their  varieties. 
Mr.  Teismann  has  even  tried  the  experiment  of  raising  vanille, 
and  making  it  bear  fruit,  and  has  succeeded.  What  South 
America,  to  this  time  has  had  the  exclusive  cultivation  of,  will, 
in  no  distant  period,  be  raised  and  exported  from  this  most  fertile 
spot  of  God's  wide  creation. 

Fortunately  for  me  his  Highness  the  Duke  Bernhard  of  Weimar, 
commander-in-chief  of  the  colonies,  was  living  in  Buitenzorg — 
only  a  short  time  afterward  he  had  to  repair  to  Germany  for  the 
restoration  of  his  health — and  to  his  kindness,  I  have  very  much 
reason  to  think,  I  am  mostly  indebted  for  a  passport  to  the 
Treanger  Regentschappen — in  short,  to  the  interior.  The  Dutch 
Government  does  not  like  to  have  much  written  about  colonies 
(though  I  really  do  not  see  why) ;  all  persons  employed  in  its 
service  are  forbidden  to  publish  any  thing  about  them  ;  and  there- 
fore why  they  do  not  like  to  have  foreigners  rambling  much  about 
their  country  is  easily  explained,  particularly  when  they  are 
known  to  travel  only  to  write.  There  I  had  also  the  pleasure  to 
make  the  acquaintance  of  some  of  his  Excellency's  officers,  par- 


A  RIDE  INTO  THE  INTERIOR  OF  JAVA.  541 

ticularly  Colonel  Steinmetz,  and  I  was  treated  by  all  in  the  most 
kind  and  friendly  manner. 

That  afternoon  I  took  a  walk  through  the  botanical  gardens 
with  a  gentleman  of  the  duke's  retinue,  when  we  heard  in  the 
neighborhood  a  perfect  Babel  of  sounds,  originating; as  it  seemed, 
in  a  multitude  of  musical  instruments,  of  which  the  Javanese 
have  a  very  large  collection,  for  they  call  "  musical"  any  thing 
that  makes  a  noise. 

I  was  beginning  to  get  used  to  this  Chinese  misfortune,  but 
here  there  were  some  new  and  even  harmonious  sounds  I  had  not 
heard  ;  sometimes  it  was  as  if  you  struck  with  a  pair  of  snuffers 
against  a  bootjack ;  and  then  again  like  the  ringing  of  some  far- 
away bells — sweet  sounds  you  have  heard  in  your  youth,  and 
never  forgotten.  Through  this  ringing  and  tinkling,  violins  and 
clarionets  squealed,  and  above  the  rest  came  thundering  the  heavy 
clashing  of  the  gongs. 

We  forced  ourselves  through  the  defective  hedge,  and  entered 
at  once  the  place  where  some  religious  festivity — I  believe  the 
circumcision  of  a  child — had  given  the  inhabitants  an  excuse  for 
this  concert ;  at  which  two  bands  were  alternately  playing  and  eat- 
ing, to  keep  the  tune  agoing.  Not  the  least  pause  existed  between 
the  two  orchestras  ;  and  I  really  believe  this  was  a  necessary 
arrangement,  for  if  that  noise  had  lasted  only  a  while,  and  com- 
menced again  in  all  its  vigor,  no  human  tympanum  could  have 
stood  the  shock. 

I  can  not  say  I  heard  that  music  alone.  No,  I  felt,  smelled, 
tasted,  and  saw  it  also  ;  it  was  a  compact  mass  of  sharp-pointed 
tones — a  perfect  musical  porcupine. 

The  main  instrument  of  the  Javanese — as  in  fact  also  of  the 
neighboring  groups — is  the  ganielang,  which  has  some  similitude 
in  sound  to  the  glass-harmonica,  and  consists  of  a  quantity  of 
metal  bells  tuned  together,  which  are  touched,  in  playing,  with 
a  couple  of  hammers.  The  sound  of  these  gamelangs,  particu- 
larly at  the  right  distance — and  it  wants  a  good  distance  too — is 
pleasant  enough  ;  but  right  under  your  nose,  and  sometimes  for 
twenty-four,  ay,  forty-eight  hours,  without  intermission,  only  a 
Javanese  ear  can  stand.  These  instruments  are  made  most  com- 
monly out  of  metal,  sometimes  with  very  lage  bells,  having,  in 
that  case,  a  value  of  from  two  and  three  to  four  hundred  roopiahs ; 
but  frequently  and  principally  among  the  poorer  classes  they  are 


542  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

of  wood  or  bamboo,  nearly  after  the  same  principle  as  similar  in- 
struments in  Europe,  with  light  pieces  of  wood  lying  hollow  upon 
strawbands ;  they  are  also  played  in  the  same  way,  with  small 
pieces  of  wood.  > 

A  perfectly 'Javanese  instrument  is  the  anklong,  made  in  the 
most  simple  way  imaginable,  out  of  two  pieces  of  bamboo,  cut 
out  something  like  the  pipes  of  an  organ,  and  tuned  by  this  and 
by  the  thickness  of  the  bamboo  itself.  Two  such  pipes,  which 
only  give  a  sound  while  swinging  at  the  upper  end,  when  struck 
with  a  short  piece  which  is  left  below  the  hollow,  against  the 
hollow  tube  of  another  in  which  they  hang,  form  an  instrument, 
but  twelve  of  them  may  be  had  together,  from  the  largest  with 
bamboo  pieces  of  nearly  four  inches  in  diameter,  down  to  one 
inch.  Ten  or  twelve  men  or  boys  are  commonly  necessary  to 
play  this  instrument,  each  having  one  in  his  right  hand,  which 
he  shakes  with  sudden  jerks,  keeping  time  with  the  rest,  taking 
two  of  the  smallest  ones,  if  they  are  not  musicians  enough,  one 
in  each  hand. 

In  the  court-yard,  under  an  open  bamboo  shed,  there  was  a 
long  covered  table  standing,  perfectly  loaded  with  all  kinds  of 
fruits,  cakes,  Confectionary,  and  tea ;  and  we  had  to  sit  down 
there  to  drink  at  least  a  cup  of  tea  and  eat  some  cake. 

In  Buitenzorg  there  is  a  very  good  hotel,  the  Hotel  of  Bellevue, 
and  the  view  there  from  the  small  back  veranda  of  the  inn,  a 
kind  of  pavilion,  is  really  about  the  finest  that  can  be  imagined. 

But  my  time  was  limited,  and  being  rather  in  a  hurry  to  see 
as  much  of  Java  as  I  could,  in  the  short  time  I  should  be  able  to 
stay  here,  I  looked  round — intending  to  return  to  Buitenzorg — for 
a  conveyance  from  here  as  cheap  and  commodious  as  I  could  get  it. 

In  former  times,  government  allowed  those  who  had  permis- 
sion to  travel  into  the  interior,  or  their  own  officers,  while  living 
upon  the  island,  a  very  liberal  privilege — wherever  they  wanted 
to  travel,  post-horses  free ;  but  this  had  been  abused,  particularly 
as  I  heard  in  Buitenzorg,  by  the  ambtenaars  who  sent  down  con- 
tinually extra  posts  to  Batavia,  if  their  wives  wanted  a  few  yards 
of  ribbon,  or  some  other  trifle.  Now,  he  who  wants  post-horses 
has  to  pay  for  them  ;  and  as  they  are  exceedingly  dear,  I  determ- 
ined to  go,  notwithstanding  all  I  had  heard  about  the  danger  of 
the  climate,  on  horseback — the  landlord  of  the  hotel  having  prom- 
ised to  provide  me  with  a  couple  of  good  animals, 


A  RIDE  INTO  THE  INTERIOR  OF  JAVA.  543* 

As  I  had  been  told  in  Batavia  the  price  was  ten  dooits — about 
one  penny — for  a  paal,  or  a  mile,  and  I  got  a  guide  with  rne  to 
take  back  the  horse  without  paying  a  cent  more  for  him.  But  if 
I  wanted  to  get  along  quicker,  I  was  advised  to  take  another  horse 
for  the  servant,  called  a  "gladdack  horse,"  upon  which  my  guide 
could  ride,  paying  for  this  second  horse  only  five  dooits  more — 
always  getting  the  Malay  into  the  bargain.  So  I  had  only  to  pay 
fifteen  dooits,  or  one  penny  and  a  half  per  mile  for  two  horses  and 
a  guide.  Getting  into  the  saddle,  with  my  gun  before  me,  and 
giving  my  carpet-bag,  a  rather  unhandy  load  on  horseback,  to  the 
Malay,  I  started,  with  my  passport  irt  my  pocket,  on  as  fine  a 
morning  and  with  as  fine  scenery  on  my  route,  as  heart  could 
wish  to  enjoy.  . 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    TREANGER    REGENTSCHAPPEN. 

AWAY  from  Buitenzorg  I  had  really  no  time  to  look  to  my  horse 
—a  small  Macassar  steed,  full  of  vivacity,  that  continued  danc- 
ing and  prancing  nearly  the  whole  day — for  every  paal  brought 
new  and  interesting  scenery.  First,  the  paddy-fields,  where  some 
lazy  buffaloes  or  carbos  were  pulling  a  small  plow  through  the 
soft  sand  of  a  field  not  yet  tilled,  while  some  of  the  native  women 
reaped  stalk  by  stalk  in  another  sawa,  the  ripe  rice,  or  sowed 
seed  in  the  adjoining  one.  Ox-carts  filled  the  tracks  which  ran 
just  alongside  of  the  main  and  post  road  ;  long  caravans  passing 
by  and  squealing  on  their  axles  in  a  pitiful  way.  The  Javanese 
are  said  to  have  a  preference  for  this  music,  as  of  course  they 
call  it,  and  would  not  miss  it  for  all  the  well-greased  wheels  in 
the  world. 

They  tell  an  amusing  anecdote  about  this — a  Javanese  heard 
for  the  first  time  in  his  life  the  soft  and  melodious  tones  of  an 
accordeon,  and  listening  to  it  a  long  while,  he  at  last  admiringly 
said,  it  sounded  very  much — "  like  the  wheels  of  his  wagons." 

To  complete  the  noise,  and  to  have,  as  it  were,  an  accompani- 
ment to  the  wheels,  they  hang  a  couple  of  bells  on  the  forepart 
of  their  cart-beams,  and  keep  screeching  and  ringing  along  the 
whole  of  the  road. 

Nearer  and  nearer  we  now  came  to  the  chain  of  volcanoes  which 
stretch  across  the  island  from  east  to  west,  forming,  as  it  were, 
the  backbone  of  Java,  and  we  were  scarcely  aware  of  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  road  till  suddenly  reaching  a  small,  but  thickly-wooded 
mountain  gully,  we  entered  upon  an  Indian  forest,  leaving  fields 
and  bamboo-huts  behind,  in  one  dark  and  seemingly  impenetrable 
mass  of  foliage.  Still  the  road  kept  the  same,  as  wide  and  smooth 
as  ever,  and  only  winding  up  now  as  gently  as  the  very  high 
mountain  would  allow,  toward  the  summit. 

Higher  and  higher  we  rose,  where  no  cocoa-nut  or  areka  palms 


THE  THE  ANGER  REGENTSCHAPPEN.  545 

could  thrive,  instead  of  which,  magnificent  trees  arose  from  the 
rich,  elevated  hackground.  Among  these  were  principally  the 
yamudju  and  the  kihadji,  with  very  high  arid  powerful,  but  slen- 
der and  limbless  smooth  trunks,  with  a  light  grayish  bark  run- 
ning up,  till  they  reached  about  a  height  of  one  hundred  and 
eighty  to  two  hundred  and  twenty  feet,  and  then  spreading  out 
their  strong  and  mighty  limbs,  covered  with  a  kind  of  foliage  not 
unlike  our  beech  trees. 

With  the  higher  trees  the  underwood  commenced  to  unfold 
new  treasures  the  farther  we  kept  climbing  up.  At  first  it  had 
only  been  a  wall-like  mass  of  green  foliage,  with  no  peculiar 
bush  or  color ;  ferns  had  appeared  as  soon  as  we  had  entered  the 
mountainous  country,  but  only  low  on  the  ground,  their  leaves 
running  out  from  a  kind  of  knob,  close  over  the  surface  of  the 
earth,  but  as  our  path  ran  higher,  these  knobs  grew  larger,  first 
showing  a  thick  stump-like  stem,  a  few  inches  long,  and  rising 
higher  and  higher,  betraying  at  last  their  arborescent  character ; 
and  we  had  not  reached  the  highest  ridge  before  I  found  ferns 
from  twenty  to  twenty-five  feet  high,  rising  now  out  of  the  lower 
bushes  with  their  fine  and  gracefully  cut  leaves,  or  shaking  their 
palm-like  crowns  rustling  over  the  deep  cut  gullies  of  the  mighty 
mountain. 

The  name  of  this  volcano  was  Megamendong  (the  cloud- 
wrapped),  as  the  meaning  is  in  the  language  of  the  Indians ;  and 
the  view  to  the  low  valleys  of  the  coast,  with  the  background  of 
the  island  dotted  sea — though  a  thin  vail  of  rnist  was  stretching 
over  it — held  me  back,  whenever  I  reached  a  point,  from  which 
I  could  enjoy  that  beautiful  spectacle. 

Here  also  the  wild  pisang  began  with  its  broad,  bright-green 
and  air-split  leaves,  and  the  badjangtere,  a  lovely  soft-red  flower, 
which  they  grow  carefully  in  the  old  country  in  hot-houses,  here 
sought  the  cooler  shade  of  the  mountains,  rankling  over  the  wild 
briars,  and  winding  its  wreaths  round  the  neighboring  bushes. 

Nearly  with  sundown,  we  reached  the  highest  ridge  of  the 
mountain,  whose  name  indicates  how  seldom  a  traveler  can  hope 
to  find  a  fair  and  open  view,  upon  the  lower  land,  over  the  Trean- 
ger  Regent schappen,  which  we  entered  here.  But  fortunately  I 
had  hit  the  right  moment,  and  hardly  had  we  passed  a  small 
cluster  of  bamboo-huts,  which  are  built  just  where  the  road  crosses 
the  top — the  path  being  furnished  also  with  a  large  wooden  gate 


546  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

which  is  closed  at  night — when  the  whole  panorama,  with  its 
wild  and  picturesque  mountain  peaks  and  rugged  ridges  for  a  back- 
ground, the  smoking  Gede  to  our  right,  and  the  beautiful  plain  of 
Tjanjor  at  our  feet,  stretching  out  to  the  left,  burst  upon  our  view. 

It  was  getting  dark,  and  we  had,  as  my  guide  told  me,  a  long 
stretch  to  travel,  before  we  could  reach  a  place  to  stay  all  night ; 
but  I  could  not  tear  myself  away  so  quickly  from  this  spectacle, 
and  stretching  myself  on  the  grass,  close  to  the  road,  upon  a  little 
open  patch,  I  looked  silently  over  that  deep  and  beautiful  valley. 
Even  my  guide,  a  dreamy  fellow  I  had  never  thought  would  look 
at  any  thing  else  but  his  horses  and  his  nasi  (rice),  stopped  at  my 
side,  and  seemed  pleased  with  my  admiration  of  his  country. 

Not  till  perfect  darkness  spread  over  mountains  and  dales 
around,  did  I  leave  this  place,  and  leading  my  horse  down  the 
tolerably  steep  slope,  we  entered  the  Treanger  Regent schappen. 
But  we  had  to  travel  a  long  while  that  night,  before  we  reached 
a  place  where  they  thought  they  could  accommodate  a  white 
person ;  they  did  not  know,  of  course,  how  little  particular  I  was 
in  such  a  case  ;  and  partly  leading  our  little  horses,  partly  riding 
where  the  road  was  level,  it  may  have  been  ten  o'clock  before 
we  reached  the  second  post  from  the  Megamendong ;  stopping 
with  a  kind  of  justice  of  the  peace  in  the  little  village. 

Next  morning,  I  had  to  start  again  with  the  same  horses,  for 
there  were  no  others  to  be  got  in  this  place ;  and  since  they  had 
rested,  and  there  was  only  a  short  distance  left  to  Tjanjor,  the 
principal  place  of  this  district,  where  I  wanted  to  stay  the  rest  of 
the  day,  I  thought  I  could  trust  to  the  little  animals  again. 

The  Javanese  horses  are  not  much  esteemed ;  they  are  taken 
commonly  for  gladdack  horses,  and  sold  very  cheap.  I  saw  little 
bits  of  ponies  even  in  Batavia,  offered  for  six  roopiahs,  not  quite 
ten  shillings  apiece  (there  being  though,  I  believe,  thirty  roopiahs 
export  duty  per  head,  should  any  one  wish  to  take  them  on  board 
a  vessel.)  The  better  kind  are  brought  over  from  the  neighbor 
ing  islands,  from  Macassar  principally,  and  from  Sandelwood 
Island  ;  and  even  from  Sydney  there  are  horses  imported  now 
with  a  good  profit,  for  Europeans  like  to  have  a  large  breed  for 
their  carriages,  though  I  should  always  prefer,  for  such  a  ride 
as  I  had  before  me,  a  Macassar  pony.  Horses  from  Sydney  most 
always  bring,  only  of  a  commonly  good  stock,  from  one  hundred 
and  fifty  to  three  hundred  roopiahs. 


THE  TREANGER  REGENTSCHAPPEN  547 

Trotting  along,  we  reached  the  last  ridges  inclosing  the  inner 
valley  of  Tjanjor  early  in  the  morning,  and  following  the  slowly 
descending  road,  soon  came  upon  the  little  town,  Tjanjor,  which 
lay  nearly  hid  in  a  perfect  forest  of  fruit-trees,  a  high  hedge  in- 
closing the  place,  while  the  main  entrance  could  be  shut  up  by 
a  large  wooden  and  white-painted  gate.  We  soon  entered  the 
town,  and  found  all  the  streets  laid  out  in  regular  squares  and  gar- 
dens, each  surrounded  by  a  hedge  about  four  feet  high,  and  level- 
trirnmed,  of  the  Ramboug  sapatoe  (shoe-flower),  the  Hobiscus  rosa 
sinensis,  which  has  received  its  rather  unpoetical  name  from  the 
singular  property  of  the  dark-red  flower  for  blackening  gentle- 
men's boots.  They  form,  in  fact,  the  only  blacking  the  natives 
use  for  that  purpose — that  is,  not  for  themselves,  but  for  their 
masters. 

Reaching  town  a  good  while  before  dinner,  I  stopped  at  a 
Dutch  hotel,  from  where  I  sent  back  my  old  guide  with  his  horses, 
to  get  fresh  animals  ;  then  took  a  stroll  through  the  principal 
streets  of  the  little  town,  and  before  all  other  things,  through  the 
business  part  of  it.  Here  were  stores  beside  stores,  from  the  vege- 
table stand  of  the  poor  Sundaman,  up  to  the  dry  goods  shop  of  the 
fat  Chinese,  who  is  squatting,  his  knees  drawn  up  to  his  chin, 
upon  his  stand,  watching  the  stranger  passing  by,  to  see  if  there 
is  any  possibility  of  bringing  him  to  trade. 

The  dress  of  the  natives  had  here  many  peculiarities,  particu- 
larly that  of  the  women,  showing,  at  the  same  time,  that  we  had 
not  only  overstepped  the  boundaries  of  one  district,  but  had  entered 
an  entirely  different  country,  with  different  people  from  that  of 
the  lowlands.  This  part  of  the  country,  in  fact,  the  entire  west- 
ern half  of  the  island,  is  not  called  Djava,  or  Java,  as  marked  on 
the  maps,  but  Sunda,  the  whole  strait  having  received  the  name 
from  this  portion.  But  the  Sunda  people  also  belong  to  two  dis- 
tinct classes,  and  the  traveler  will  find  the  great  difference  between 
the  Malay  of  the  sea-shores,  and  the  Orang  goenceng  of  the  mount- 
ains. 

The  Malay  is  of  a  far  smaller  race,  the  mountaineers  being 
taller  and  better  made  ;  even  in  their  dress  they  preserve  a  dif- 
ference ;  the  Sundaman  wearing  a  piece  of  cloth  thrown  round 
his  shoulders,  not  unlike  the  Spaniard  or  the  South  American 
nations,  while  the  Malay  prefers  to  dress  in  a  kind  of  jacket  or  a 
cabaya.  The  women  also  wear,  besides  the  cloth  they  have 


548  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

wrapped  round  their  hips  or  waist,  another  piece  loosely  hung 
over  one  shoulder,  leaving  the  breasts  free,  or  covering  at  least 
only  one  with  the  corner  of  the  cloth.  Their  hair  is  combed 
smooth,  and  most  generally  ornamented  with  flowers,  and  they 
go  of  course  barefooted. 

The  men  wear,  one  and  all,  even  down  to  boys  of  eight  or  nine 
years,  short  swords,  called  klewangs,  at  the  left  side  ;  while  the 
large,  flat,  round  hat,  frequently  seen  swinging  upon  their  shoul- 
der, and  looking  exactly  like  a  shield,  gives  them  quite  a  warlike 
appearance,  which  is  not  contradicted  by  their  tall  and  well-shaped 
forms  and  dark  and  lively  eyes.  But  their  spirits  are,  if  not  broken, 
at  least  kept  down — those  strong  and  warlike  forms,  with  weapons 
at  their  sides,  bend  to  the  dust  before  the  white  man,  and  dare 
not  even  lift  their  eyes  to  him  while  he  passes  ;  they  have  no 
friendly  nod  for  you,  like  the  South  Sea  islanders,  with  their  fair 
and  open  countenances  ;  no  bright  smile  parts  their  lips  and 
sparkles  in  their  eyes  when  they  meet  you  ;  they  know  their  mas- 
ters, know  their  masters'  power  ;  and  if  a  dark  scowl  sometimes 
hides  under  that  broad  hat,  their  hand  only  grasps  that  hat  to 
pull  it  down  to  one  side  while  meeting  the  European,  and  not  the 
klewang  to  revenge  many  a  year's  slavery  and  servitude.  Still 
I  could  not  help  thinking  that  I  saw  not  unfrequently  something 
in  those  downcast  eyes,  that  was  not  the  resignation  of  a  settled, 
unalterable  fate  ;  dark  thoughts  were  flitting  across  those  bended 
brows,  and  darker  deeds  would  be  the  consequence  if  they  found 
expression.  There  are  seven  millions  of  natives  living  upon  that 
one  island  Java,  to,  maybe,  ten  or  fifteen  thousands  of  Europeans, 
and  it  looks  like  an  act  of  self-preservation  for  the  latter  to  hold 
their  vassals  with  a  strong  hand. 

Tjanjor  is  the  principal  town  of  the  Treanger  Regentschappen, 
the  resident  living  here ;  Bandong,  the  next,  has  an  Assistant- 
resident,  and  in  each  of  these  places  a  native  regent  is  living,  who 
is  the  chief  of  all  the  natives,  but  under  the  control  as  well  as 
the  command  of  the  Resident.  These  Regents  are  placed  though, 
in  every  other  respect,  under  the  greatest  advantages.  They 
have  a  certain  per  centage  of  all  the  produce  raised  in  their 
regency,  which  offers  them  a  fair  inducement  to  do  their  best, 
and  have  as  much  land  cultivated  as  possible,  for  their  own 
income  increases  with  it,  and  the  yearly  salary  of  many  of  them 
is  said  far  to  exceed  one  hundred  thousand  roopiahs. 


THE  TREANGER  REGENTSCHAPPEN.  549 

In  Tjanjor  there  were  some  soldiers  drilling  and  marching  up 
and  down.  They  were  all  natives  except  the  sergeant,  who  had 
to  speak  to  them  of  course  in  their  own  language.  The  sergeant 
was  certainly  a  very  polite  man  ;  when  I  passed  him,  he  took  off 
his  cap.  The  uniform  of  the  soldiers  was  blue  with  red  facings, 
but  without  shoes  ;  they  did  not  even  wear  their  handkerchief, 
which  is  almost  invariably  tied  round  their  heads  in  every  other 
situation,  but  a  small  blue  cap.  This  fashion,  though,  is  not  a 
voluntary  one,  and  I  hardly  think  they  feel  comfortable  in  that 
tight  jacket  and  pantaloons,  after  having  been  so  long  used  only 
to  wear  the  sarong  round  their  hips,  and  another  cloth,  perhaps, 
over  their  shoulders. 

The  sarong  is  of  Indian  manufacture,  and  woven  of  cotton — 
except  in  rare  cases,  and  only  for  the  use  of  the  regents  or  princes, 
in  silk  and  gold — but  the  coloring,  or  rather  printing  of  the  stuff 
makes  even  this  material  costly.  The  reader  will  not  be  tired, 
I  think,  to  read  a  short  description  of  the  very  peculiar  way  they 
draw  and  dye  this,  which  with  the  head-cloth  forms  a  complete 
dress. 

The  workman,  or  rather  the  woman,  for  women  most  com- 
monly make  this  drawing  their  business,  hang  up  the  cloth  which 
they  wish  to  dye,  upon  a  low  rack,  to  suspend  it  before  them, 
arid  holding  it  up  with  her  left  hand,  she  takes  up  in  her  right  a 
little  copper  tube  filled  with  hot  wax,  to  draw  with  it  the  pat- 
tern off-hand,  as  she  wishes  to  have  it.  This  copper  tube  has  a 
little  bowl,  not  unlike  a  small  pipe,  out  of  which  a  very  thin 
tube  runs  downward  ;  the  pipe  is  then  filled  with  hot  wax,  by 
just  dipping  the  latter  out  of  an  earthen  bowl,  kept  on  coals  for 
the  purpose,  close  by,  and  in  touching  the  cloth,  just  enough  of 
the  wax  oozes  out  of  the  tube,  to  cover  the  line  it  is  drawn  over. 
Having  finished  the  pattern,  by  covering  in  such  a  way  all  those 
places  in  the  cloth,  which  are  to  be  guarded  against  the  next 
dyeing — for  those  parts  which  are  covered  with  a  thin  coat  of 
of  wax,  will  not,  of  course,  take  the  color — they  turn  it  over  and 
follow  the  same  lines  upon  the  other  side,  and  after  having 
finished  it  in  this  way  on  both  sides,  it  is  ready  for  the  dyer. 
When  the  cloth  has  been  in  the  dye,  the  wax  is  Washed  out  and 
now  shows  the  drawing  nearly  in  the  original  color  of  the  stuff, 
while  they  have  to  go  over  the  whole  process  again  if  a  third 
shade  is  wanted. 


550  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

As  cheap  as  the  native  women  work — for  they  are  satisfied 
with  a  few  dooits  a  day — it  may  easily  be  imagined  that  this 
work  must  come  a  great  deal  higher  in  price  than  such  sarongs 
could  be  printed,  in  the  common  way,  with^machines,  in  Europe  ; 
such  pieces  of  cloth  have  also  become  already  a  very  good  article 
of  commerce,  being  manufactured  in  Switzerland  as  well  as  in 
England,  after  original  patterns,  and  of  course  at  a  far  cheaper 
rate  than  they  are  able  to  manufacture  it  in  India ;  but  the  na- 
tives do  not  like  it.  The  poorer  classes  buy  it,  it  is  true,  and  wear 
it ;  but  they  know  well  enough  the  difference  between  a  real  bad- 
deked  sarong  and  a  counterfeit  one ;  the  irregularities  in  the  first, 
with  its  peculiar  smell  of  wax  and  a  certain  consistence,  it  seems 
can  not  be  imitated  sufficiently  to  please  them. 

The  day  I  stopped  in  Tjanjor,  I  ordered  fresh  horses  for  next 
morning,  after  having  given  my  passport  to  the  landlord  (as  no 
man  in  the  whole  interior  of  Java  is  allowed  to  give  post-horses 
or  even  a  night's  lodging  and  food  to  any  body  traveling  without  a 
passport) :  I  made  an  early  start,  to  pass  a  part  of  the  road  in  the 
cool  of  the  morning.  I  had  again  a  wild  and  splendid  little 
Macassar  steed,  full  of  fire  and  life.  Even  in  town  he  would  prove 
to  me  what  he  could  do ;  for  making  a  rush  at  my  poor  guide, 
who  followed  close  in  my  wake  with  the  carpet-bag  upon  the 
pommel  of  his  saddle,  he  bit  first  at  the  carpet-bag,  and  then 
turning  round  lifted  his  hind  legs  and  kicked — in  spite  of  all  I 
could  do  to  get  him  away — as  maliciously  as  a  mule  at  the  poor 
devil,  whose  horse  was  turning  tail  to  ward  off  the  blows  with 
its  own  legs,  or  give  back  part  of  them.  The  fellow,  not  being 
able  to  hold  the  carpet-bag  as  well  as  himself  in  a  right  balance, 
let  go  all,  and  dividing,  as  it  were,  into  three  different  parts, 
dropped  off  from  his  animal  too  leeward,  while  the  luggage  went 
to  windward,  and  the  large  hat  flew  over  the  horse's  head.  He 
picked  himself  up  after  awhile,  and  having  caught  his  horse  again 
and  got  somebody  to  hand  him  up  the  bag  he  followed,  but  get- 
ting thrown  twice  more,  gave  it  up  at  last  for  a  bad  job.  Throw- 
ing the  carpet-bag  over  his  shoulder,  and  leading  his  horse,  he 
followed  on  foot.  By  taking  part  of  the  contents  out,  and  fasten- 
ing it  saddle-bag  fashion  upon  his  saddle,  I  got  him  at  last  into 
his  seat  again,  that  we  might  follow  our  road  quicker  than  a 
man  on  foot. 

The  scenery  which  we  passed  to-day  was  as  wild  as  romantic 


THE  TREANGER  REGENTSCHAPPEN.  551 

— steep  lime  rock,  running  up  straight  in  some  parts  from  the 
road — deep  gullies  thickly  covered  with  the  most  luxurious  vege- 
tation, out  of  which  the  waving  tops  of  the  beautiful  fern-palms 
were  discernible — scattered  fruit  groves  in  wide  and  regular  rice- 
fields,  and  to  our  right  and  left  the  rugged  points  of  the  different 
volcanoes.  Here  also  began  the  capital  hunting-grounds  for 
which  Bandong  is  famed  even  in  Java — the  mountains  all 
around  us  held  rhinoceroses  and  tigers,  and  the  plains  were  said 
to  abound  with  deer  and  wild  boars. 

About  sundown  we  again  reached  a  post,  where  we  could  stay 
all  night,  and  having  made  a  good  long  stretch  that  day,  the  sun 
burning  down  upon  us  in  his  full  power,  I  felt  rather  tired.  So 
after  a  supper  of  rice,  cakes,  hot  coffee,  chicken,  and  several  fruits, 
bearing  leaves  and  seeds  I  did  not  know,  I  was  ready  to  lay 
down,  when  the  sounds  of  an  anklong,  close  to  the  thin  bamboo 
wall  of  the  house,  began  to  give  music,  and  not  five  minutes 
later  a^noise  commenced,  with  bamboo,  voices,  sticks,  bells,  and 
the  Lord  knows  what.  I  jumped  up  in  despair  to  see  what  was 
the  matter,  that  I  might  try  afterward  what  I  could  do  in  the 
way  of  sleep. 

There  I  had  it — the  neighborhood  had  got  up  a  real  ranging, 
and  what  would  become  of  me  ?  The  best  thing  I  could  do  was 
to  join  in  the  festivity  and  see  as  much  of  it  as  I  could  ;  par- 
ticularly as  the  dancers,  which  I  had  never  seen  in  this  way,  had 
some  attraction  for  me.  They  were  four  Chinese  girls,  who  had 
collected  in  a  small  square  and  open  bamboo  shed,  in  the  middle  of 
which  a  large  lamp  with  four  bright  burning  wicks  was  swinging. 
Their  faces  were  painted  white,  they  had  their  hair  combed 
smooth,  and  a  parcel  of  brass  or  such  like  trinkets  fastened  upon 
it.  Their  many  colored  dress,  of  partly  silken,  partly  cotton  stuff, 
was  held  up  by  a  broad,  richly  but  tastelessly  ornamented  belt, 
high  under  their  arms,  covering  the  breast  completely.  Their 
feet  also  were  as  naked  as  their  arms,  but  round  the  arms  and 
wrists  they  had  fastened  some  golden  or  bronze  bracelets.  The 
natives  are  very  good  judges  of  metals,  knowing  very  well  the 
difference  not  only  between  gold  and  the  meaner  metals,  but  also 
between  true  jewels  and  counterfeit  stones — they,  therefore,  do 
not  like  to  wear  any  thing  but  the  genuine  metal,  and  do  without 
if  they  can  not  get  it.  The  Chinese,  however,  are  not  so  pai- 
ticular. 


552  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

The  dance  of  these  girls  was  a  slow,  not  ungraceful  movement 
round  the  lamp — having  some  similitude  in  its  character  to  the 
Californian  fandango — the  principal  gesticulations  seemed  to  be 
the  turning  of  the  hands,  which  they  twitbted  and  turned  about 
in  a  most  extraordinary  manner  by  bending  them  back  and  for- 
ward, their  arms  at  the  same  time  almost  always  stretched  down- 
ward. In  one  of  the  hands,  or  rather  between  the  fingers,  they 
held  a  small  fan,  hiding  their  faces  frequently  behind  it ;  but  not 
in  bashfulness,  far  from  it — only  I  think,  to  give  those  screams, 
they  called  a  song,  more  sound.  They  sang  Malay,  and  a  part 
of  it  must  have  been  Sunda,  for  I  did  not  understand  the  least  of 
it,  while  the  men  in  the  crowd  broke  out  frequently  in  a  perfect 
roaring  laughter. 

Afterward  some  of  the  men  commenced  taking  part  in  the 
dance — if  a  movement  can  be  so  called,  where  a  parcel  of  girls 
and  young  men  slide  about  without  the  least  apparent  regularity, 
now  here,  now  there.  One  young  fellow,  the  last  who  stepped 
in  pleased  me  most ;  and  the  reader  can  create  for  himself  an 
excellent  idea  of  his  performance,  if  he  will  only  imagine  a  man 
entering  a  perfectly  dark  room,  and  feeling  for  matches,  or  some- 
thing else  ;  convinced  that  there  is  somewhere  there  a  fox-trap 
into  which  he  is  likely  to  step  every  minute,  which  makes  there- 
fore the  greatest  caution  necessary.  So  the  man  stepped,  so  he 
slipped  through  the  dancers  seeming  to  shrink  back  in  horror 
when  he  touched  only  one  of  the  dresses,  or  the  posts  of  the  shed  ; 
and  the  anklong  was  rattling  away  in  the  meantime  uninter- 
ruptedly. 

At  last,  I  could  stand  it  no  longer,  for  the  movements  con- 
tinued the  same,  as  well  as  the  noise  ;  and  I  went  back  to  my 
couch  thinking  I  would  drop  to  sleep  any  how,  being  over- 
fatigued  ;  but  no — it  was  not  possible  ;  they  kept  that  anklong 
shaking  into  my  ears,  till  I  jumped  up  in  despair,  threw  my 
blanket  over  my  shoulder,  and  running  to  the  farthest  end  of  the 
kampong  or  village — ay,  even  farther,  where  the  sawas  com- 
menced— I  wrapped  myself  in  my  blanket,  and  lying  down 
under  a  single  cocoa-nut  tree,  though  a  fine  drizzly  rain  was 
coming  down,  fell  fast  asleep  directly.  When  I  awoke  next 
morning,  I  was  wet  through ;  but  I  had  rested,  and  felt  as  well 
as  ever. 

Bandong,   which   I   reached    about   mid-day,    is   even  more 


THE  TREANGER  REGENTSCHAPPEN.  553 

beautifully  situated  than  Tjanjor.  Surrounded  by  the  high  and 
rough-cut  volcanoes,  the  Malabar,  Tancuban  Prow,  and  others 
— they  form  a  valley  really  beyond  description.  Though  high 
in  the  mountains,  the  vegetation  in  the  valley  is  entirely  trop- 
ical. Cocoa,  areka,  and  aren  palms  nod  their  rustling  crowns 
over  manga  and  papayas,  over  nyaukas,  and  orange-trees ;  in 
spite  of  which  the  air  is  cooler  and  fresher  than  in  the  low- 
lands ;  and  you  do  not  see  only — you  feel  you  are  in  a  higher, 
and  more  healthy  latitude. 

The  little  town  is  like  Tjanjor  very  much  in  its  buildings,  as 
well  as  in  its  trade  and  business.  An  Assistant-resident  has  the 
first  place  in  this  district,  though  living  under  the  Resident  of 
Tjanjor. 

I  stopped  at  first  in  the  hotel  of  Bandong ;  quite  a  respectable 
place,  with  the  same  prices  exactly  as  in  Batavia,  though  of 
course  not  with  the  same  commodities.  It  is  kept  by  an  extra- 
ordinary stout  lady — the  sorrowful  widow  of,  as  I  was  told,  seven 
dead  husbands.  There  I  took  a  bath,  a  good  dinner,  and  a  bet- 
ter siesta,  and  found  myself  in*  the  best  order. 

By  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Kinder,  a  merchant  in  Batavia,  I  had 
a  letter  of  introduction  to  his  brother-in-law,  the  Assistant-resident 
of  Bandong,  Mr.  Yisher  van  Gaasbeek,  and  was  received  by 
him  in  the  most  friendly  and  cordial  manner.  I  had  to  bring 
my  luggage  to  his  house  directly,  and  found  myself,  half  an  hour 
afterward,  situated  as  comfortably  as  I  could  wish  for.  That 
night  though,  and  while  sitting  with  my  host  quietly  at  table, 
something  happened  to  me  that  had  overcome  me  several  times 
already  in  the  woods,  mostly  while  hunting  in  North  America 
and  in  California — I  fainted,  and  without  feeling  the  least  signs 
coming  upon  me  ;  but  my  good  constitution  restored  me  again, 
and  the  next  day,  a  little  weakness  excepted,  I  was  quite  re- 
stored. 

Next  evening,  the  Dutch  doctor  of  Bandong,  who  had  a  patient 
at  the  Regent's  house,  and  with  whom  I  got  acquainted  at  Mr. 
Visher's,  offered  to  take  me  over  with  him  to  the  Regent's  resi- 
dence, where  his  bajaderes  danced  that  evening;  two  other 
strangers  I  had  got  acquainted  with  in  Batavia — an  English 
officer  from  Bengal,  and  an  American  merchant  from  Hong 
Kong — being  also  present  there.  Already  from  afar  the  melan- 
holy  sounds  of  the  gamelang  struck  our  ears,  and  stepping  into 

AA 


554  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

the  carriage,  waiting  at  the  door,  we  passed  over  to  the  residence, 
only  a  few  hundred  yards  distant  of  the  Regent  of  Bandong,  and 
entered  the  audience-chamber.  Audience-chamber  ! — yes,  I  may 
well  call  the  place  so,  though  those  Javanese  princes  have  no 
power  now,  being  merely  tools  to  the  European  government  to 
hold  their  native  subjects  by  a  cord  of  their  own  ;  still  they  are  the 
natural  chiefs  of  the  land,  deserving,  therefore,  at  least  their  titles. 

The  same  interest  that  binds  the  Regent  to  government  also 
induces  the  Resident  to  watch  over  the  fulfillment  of  all  his 
other  duties.  It  is  easy  to  be  seen  how  the  interest  of  nearly 
every  officer  in  the  service  of  government  is  connected  with  the 
produce  of  the  country  ;  and  though  such  an  influence  may 
raise  the  culture  of  the  land,  it  also  offers  all  those  who  have 
certain  districts  under  their  command  a  strong  temptation  to 
overwork  their  subjects  to  obtain  more  profit  for  themselves  by 
raising  a  greater  supply  of  produce  for  the  state  ;  and  such  a  cause 
it  was  that  forced  the  poor  Javanese,  some  time  back,  to  work  in 
coffee  and  spice  orchards,  without  allowing  them  time  to  attend 
to  their  own  paddy-fields,  to  keep  themselves  from  starvation. 

The  present  Governor  has  now  commenced  upon  a  far  more 
humane  principle — to  leave  the  natives  their  freewill  as  to  time 
and  work,  only  trying  to  induce  them  to  labor  by  wages  that 
offer  a  fair  prospect  of  gaining  money,  and  of  providing  them- 
selves with  all  those  luxuries,  indeed  necessities,  they  have  learnt 
to  require  from  the  whites.  May  such  a  humane  and  wise  law 
meet  every  success  possible  !  But  though  it  speaks  volumes  for 
the  man  who  originated  it,  I  hardly  think  it  will  answer  in  the 
long  run ;  for  the  result  is  easily  anticipated.  The  native  lives 
extremely  frugal  and  temperate,  and  a  few  dooits  for  his  nasi  are 
sufficient  for  him.  If  he  acquired  some  necessities  from  the 
whites  he  did  not  know  at  first,  he  has  also  the  disinclination — 
given  to  him  with  the  climate,  the  soil,  and  his  own  nature — to 
work  much  if  he  can  help  it ;  not  to  toil  and  sweat  if  he  can  lay 
in  the  shade  and  do  nothing  ;  he  at  least  will  not  overwork 
himself,  so  much  is  certain  ;  and  while  treated  as  a  human 
being,  he  will  produce  no  longer  as  much  as  unreasona- 
ble officers  have  been  able  to  squeeze  out  of  him.  This  though 
does  not  injure  the  laborer  himself;  he  has  less  work  and  lives 
easier,  while  he  is  able  every  minute  to  earn  more  for  extra  ex- 
penses, if  he  should  feel  inclined  ;  but  there  will  also  be  less  pro- 


THE  TREANGER  REGENTSCHAPPEN.  555 

duce  coming  to  market.  The  residents  and  Regent,  the  mer 
chants  in  town,  will  not  have  so  large  a  bulk  of  goods  passing 
through  their  hands,  and  thus  must  diminish  their  profits  ;  the  re- 
sult will  cause  all  these  people  to  set  up  a  general  outcry  about 
ruined  trade,  and  the  poor  native  will  be  obliged  at  last  to  carry 
his  hide  to  market  again  as  before. 

It  is  true,  that  this  compulsory  service  of  the  Indians  com- 
menced under  another  intention  than  to  keep  them  at  it  during 
lifetime.  When  the  Dutch  government  ordered  the  Javanese 
to  be  taken  to  that  work,  whether  or  no,  it  was  only  to  show 
them  they  could  work  if  they  only  tried,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
show  what  they  could  earn  by  it  if  they  persevered.  Just  as  you 
throw  a  young  dog  into  the  water,  round  which  he  always  has 
been  sneaking  as  if  afraid  to  wet  his  feet,  to  show  him  he  can 
swim  if  he  chooses.  But  the  result  of  this  system,  I  mean  the 
forcing  of  the  natives  to  work,  proved  so  extraordinarily  lucrative 
to  government,  that  former  governors  who  had  come  over  here 
only  to  make  money,  not  caring  much  about  a  heathen  popula- 
tion, took  good  care  not  to  alter  an  arrangement  which  suited 
them  so  well.  We  shall  see  now  if  humanity  versus  self-interest 
will  gain  the  day,  this  time. 

But  to  corne  back  to  the  Regent's  audience-chamber  or  saloon  ; 
I  was  rather  astonished  to  see  it  as  it  was.  Having  been  in 
hopes  of  finding  a  real  Indian  palace  suited  to  the  dance  of  the 
bajaderes,  I  was  grievously  disappointed  on  stepping  into  a  per- 
fectly European  saloon,  down  to  the  smallest  kind  of  furniture  in 
it.  The  room,  being  lighted  up  by  French  or  English  swinging 
and  standing  lamps  with  glass  cupolas,  was  ornamented  with 
the  common  European  furniture,  with  large  looking-glasses,  a 
carpet,  and  French  and  English  engra-vings  ;  except  on  the  back 
wall,  in  a  style  not  unlike  some  trophies,  four  large  umbrellas  of 
state,  with  long  silver-mounted  staffs,  were  standing.  Upon 
the  table  there  were  cigars  in  cigare  etuis  of  pressed  leather. 

This  looked  as  European  as  the  Regent  himself  arid  his  follow- 
ers were  Indian.  He  was  a  young,  handsome  man,  with  a  thin 
but  dark  mustache,  and  black  expressive,  but  voluptuous  eyes. 
Though  of  the  genuine  caste  of  his  tribe,  he  was  the  natural  son 
of  the  former  Regent,  having  been  made  Regent  himself  after  the 
former  Assistant-resident  of  Bandong,  a  cruel  and  hard  man,  had 
been  murdered  under  the  government  of  his  father — who  was  then 


556  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

dismissed  and  pensioned,  though  perhaps  innocent  of  the  deed. 
His  dress,  too,  was  more  Indian  than  European ;  he  wore,  as  all 
good  Mussulmeri  do,  the  kerchief  turban-like  round  his  head,  be- 
sides a  white  shirt,  white  waistcoat,  short  jacket,  and  close-fitting 
trowsers,  a  fine,  beautiful  baddeked  sarong,  out  of  which  the  gold 
and  jeweled  handle  of  his  crees  or  dagger  appeared,  and  wore 
gold  embroidered  Chinese  slippers  upon  his  naked  feet. 

The  Indian  princes  think  very  much  of  these  creeses,  in  the 
steel  of  which  certain  peculiar  signs  and  characters  are  usually 
worked  while  being  damaskeened.  A  chief,  if  he  should  find  a 
criss  or  crees,  which  had  once  belonged  to  his  family,  in  posses- 
sion of  a  stranger,  would  be  forced  by  his  religion  to  get  it  back 
again. 

Before  the  open  doors  of  the  saloon,  the  musicians,  with  their 
different  kinds  of  gamelangs,  sat  squatting  upon  the  ground — this 
being  the  only  position  they  are  allowed  to  appear  in  before  their 
sovereign  ;  while  some  single  servants,  with  the  ever-burning 
matches  of  cocoa-nut  fibres,  were  divided,  in  a  like  position, 
through  different  parts  of  the  room,  to  be  ready  for  the  frequent 
call  of  api  (awpee),  upon  which  they  came  crawling  along  the 
ground  just  high  enough  to  be  able  to  move  forward,  and  hold 
out  the  fire  to  the  person  who  commanded  it.  So  slavish  do 
these  men  appear,  as  if  not  daring  to  show  the  freewill  of  the 
arm  they  stretch  out  with  the  match  toward  their  white  lord, 
they  support  it  with  their  other  hand  ;  behaving  exactly  as  if 
they  expected  every  minute  a  knock  on  the  head,  and  were 
going  to  dodge  it. 

After  the  first  greetings  and  compliments  were  over,  which 
consisted  in  a  perfectly  European  shaking  of  hands,  we  all  sat 
down,  most  of  us  lighting  our  cigars  ;  and  the  Regent,  giving  a 
sign  by  clapping  his  hands  together,  the  sweet  and  low  sounds  of 
a  really  splendid  gamelang  floated  upon  the  air. 

In  the  open  door  to  our  left,  suddenly  the  form  of  a  young  and 
beautiful  girl  appeared  in  fantastic  attire.  She  wore  a  close- 
fitting  dress,  not  too  long,  and  of  light,  and  as  it  seemed  to  me 
woolen  or  silken  stuff;  for  it  was  soft  and  elastic,  pressing  the 
form  of  the  nymph-like  being,  yet  green  and  gold  woven  must 
have  been  the  texture,  for  moving  before  the  lights  it  glittered 
with  a  faint  metallic  lustre.  A  broad,  curiously-wrought  golden 
belt  encircled  her  waist,  and  the  dress  reached  up — as  with  the 


THE  TREANGER  REGENTSCHAPPEN.  557 

Chinese  dancing-girls — though  Heaven  forbid  I  should  compare  the 
two — close  under  her  arms,  in  front  chastely  covering  the  budding 
breast.  But  the  round  shoulders  and  arms,  save  the  broad  golden 
bands,  were  left  naked.  Dark-red  pantaloons  fitted  close  round 
the  lower  part  of  her  legs,  ending,  as  it  seemed,  in  a  golden  ring, 
fastened  around  her  ankles — the  small  feet  were  also  naked. 
Upon  her  breast  she  wore  a  kind  of  star  or  sun,  wrought  in  very 
tasteful  filigree  gold. 

Her  hair  was  combed  down  smooth,  as  it  seemed,  and  held  by 
golden  combs  and  head-ring ;  but  above  these,  there  was  a  kind 
of  peculiar- shaped  golden  diadem  fastened,  upon  which  the  thin 
golden  plates,  bending  upward,  shook  and  trembled  in  the  move- 
ment of  the  dance,  touching  each  other  with  a  soft  ringing  sound. 
The  shape  of  this  head-dress  was  taken,  as  the  Regent  showed  us 
afterward,  from  old  heathen  players  of  former  times. 

With  noiseless  and  elastic  step,  slowly  turning,  and  bending, 
and  raising  her  form,  that  beautiful  girl  appeared  upon  the  thresh- 
old, and  entered  the  saloon  ;  but  hardly  had  she  done  so  when 
a  second  figure,  similar  to  the  first  nearly  in  every  particle  of 
dress,  followed,  and  after  this  a  third,  fourth,  &c.,  till  six  girls, 
each  more  beautiful  and  graceful  than  the  rest,  came  gliding  in 
this  way  into  the  saloon,  and  commenced,  to  the  wild  but  soft 
tones  of  the  gamelang,  their  expressive  pantomimic  dance.  Softly 
they  passed  each  other,  without  touching  even  with  their  dresses  ; 
forward  and  backward  they  moved,  their  lovely  airy  forms,  their 
sweet  faces  looking  all  the  time  serious,  even  sorrowful ;  and 
shaking  gently  their  heads,  the  gold  clasps  and  spangles  nodded, 
and  touched  their  points  with  a  ringing  sound. 

My  whole  sense  and  feeling  were  so  entirely  taken  up  by  the 
wonderful  dance  of  these  beautiful  beings,  that  I  felt  my  temples, 
to  see  if  I  was  awake  or  dreaming.  I  hardly  dared  to  breathe  ; 
and  when  the  girls  disappeared,  quicker  than  they  had  come,  at 
the  same  door,  I  felt  as  if  a  weight  had  been  raised  from  off  my 
breast,  and  for  the  first  time  could  draw  breath  freely.  "  This 
is  pleasant  to  look  at  for  once,"  said  the  American,  who  was 
sitting  by  my  side,  then  with  a  loud  voice  he  called  to  a  servant, 
who  had  been  watching  him,  as  he  rose  from  the  ground,  to  light 
that  always  going  out  cigar,  and  added  in  a  lower  tone  to  me, 
"  Damned  nice  girls  !  'ticulary  the  first." 

I  heard  his  words,  but  I  hardly  comprehended  the  meaning  of 


558  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

them ;  and  as  if  awakening  from  a  wild  and  fantastic  dream,  I 
looked  around.  But  those  European  walls,  those  drawings  and 
looking-glasses,  those  lamps  and  curtains,  with  honest  German 
brass  ornaments,  annoyed  me  :  they  tore  ink  forcibly  back  to  an 
unpleasant  reality.  The  European  furniture  did  not  suit  the 
dance  of  the  bajaderes ;  and  I  would  willingly,  ay,  gladly,  have 
changed  in  that  moment  the  entire  rich  scene,  for  the  most  sim- 
ple bamboo-hut  upon  the  island. 

The  gamelang  was  still  sounding,  in  a  low  monotonous,  but 
not  unpleasant  tune,  or  rather  a  chaos  of  tunes.  It  is  singular 
that  this  instrument  I  have  listened  to  for  hours,  and  have  felt 
that  there  was  a  certain  melody,  a  tune  in  it ;  but  never  was  able 
to  catch  it,  and  follow  it  out.  Here  I  felt  for  the  first  time,  what 
had  seemed  to  me  so  singular — ay,  often  ridiculous — in  the  States, 
when  Americans,  at  a  tune  which  seemed  as  simple  as  any  thing 
to  me,  used  to  say,  they  did  not  understand  the  melody ;  they 
did  not  understand  it,  because  they  could  not  strike  the  time  to 
it  with  their  feet ;  but  here  I  was  obliged  to  acknowledge  that  I 
did  not  understand  these  melodies  of  the  natives.  Sometimes  it 
seemed  to  me  as  if  I  could  retain  one  theme,  one  key-note  of  the 
whole ;  but  as  soon  as  I  was  going  to  follow  this  up,  other  pas- 
sages, wild  and  irregular,  seemingly  without  time  and  accord, 
sounded  into  it.  I  was  led  off  first  by  these,  and  when  I  found 
out  the  mistake,  and  wanted  to  go  back  to  the  first,  it  was  gone 
also.  I  am  tolerably  quick  in  catching  a  tune,  but  was  never 
able  to  keep  five  notes  together  of  that  gamelang. 

The  pause  of  the  dancers  may  have  lasted  a  quarter  of  an 
hour,  when  they  appeared  again  upon  the  threshold.  Again 
they  commenced,  as  the  first  time,  their  measure  in  a  slow  and 
bashful  way,  only  gaining  life  and  movement  from  the  dance. 
This  time  each  of  them  carried  a  large  fan  of  peacock-feathers, 
and  while  the  bells  sounded  more  lively  and  quick,  their  dance 
also  grew  more  vivacious  and  gay ;  in  friendly  play  they  waved 
their  fans  to  one  another,  chased  and  fled,  and  again  disappeared 
through  the  entrance  while  acting  their  ballet. 

The  English  officer,  who  was  sitting  close  to  the  Regent,  had 
been  looking,  as  it  seemed,  in  the  mean  time,  at  the  crees  which 
now  went  from  hand  to  hand ;  and  we  all  admired  the  most  ex- 
cellent workmanship  of  the  weapon  in  blade  as  well  as  handle, 
in  gold  as  well  as  steel.  The  owner  gave  a  sign,  and  one  of  the 


THE  TREANGER  REGENTSCHAPPEN.  559 

forms  cowering  every  where  crawled  up  to  his  master,  nearly 
upon  all-fours,  to  receive  his  commands.  The  Regent  bending 
down  to  him,  whispered  a  few  words  into  his  ear,  and  gliding 
over  the  floor  as  a  snake,  without  even  raising  up  his  head,  he 
disappeared  in  the  back  part  of  the  room.  A  few  minutes  after- 
ward, the  fine  youthful  form  of  another  servant  appeared  at  the 
door,  carrying  five  gold  and  jewel-sparkling  creeses.  I  did  not 
care  much  for  the  weapons,  at  first ;  the  boy  who  brought  them 
claiming  my  whole  attention.  He  respectfully  approached  the 
Prince,  and  handing  them  to  him,  crossed  his  arms  upon  his 
breast,  and  bowed  slightly ;  but  there  was  no  slavish  obedience 
in  that  look,  and  he  did  not  bow  down,  like  the  rest,  to  await 
further  commands.  The  face  of  this  boy  was  really  beautiful ; 
the  nose  straight  and  small,  the  mouth  finely  formed,  the  eye 
black  and  full  of  fire,  while  a  slight  touch  of  sorrow  pressed 
those  cherry  lips  together.  He  wore  exactly  the  dress  of  the 
men  :  a  headkerchief,  with  the  long  dark  hair  in  it,  tied  up  in 
a  kind  of  turban  ;  the  close-fitting  pantaloons ;  the  short  sarong 
— only  the  jacket  was  not  open — and  another  beautiful-colored 
sarong,  or  kind  of  shawl,  lay  over  his  shoulders,  hanging  down 
to  cover  half  his  arms  and  one  shoulder.  I  could  have  sworn 
that  the  form  was  that  of  a  woman ;  though  the  daring  expres- 
sion in  look  and  bearing  made  me  doubtful  again. 

Mentioning  my  suspicions  to  my  neighbor,  I  asked  him  what 
sex  he  thought  that  figure. 

"  Oh,  drat  it,"  he  answered,  after  a  short  pause,  having  glanced 
at  the  servant  carelessly  over  his  shoulder,  "he's  a  boy — he  wears 
trowsers  and  a  headkerchief;  but  what  a  splendid  knife  that  is 
— that  must  have  cost  a  heap  of  money." 

Upon  a  sign  of  the  Regent,  the  figure  stepped  behind  one  of  the 
square  columns  which  supported  the  ceiling,  and  must  have  left 
through  some  back  door,  for  I  did  not  see  it  again.  During  the 
whole  time  it  was  in  the  room  it  did  not  take  its  eye  off  the  Re- 
gent for  one  minute. 

The  weapons  were  passing  from  hand  to  hand ;  they  all  had 
the  particular  shape  of  the  crees,  the  blade  running  out  to  one 
side,  right  at  the  root,  in  a  sharp  and  most  peculiar  manner,  hard 
to  describe  without  a  drawing,  their  handles  being  mostly  of  gold, 
richly  studded  with  jewels,  and  so  beautifully  worked  that  no 
engraver  even  in  Europe  could  surpass  it.  One  crees  had  handle 


560  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

and  sheath  ornamented  with  gold  and  jewels,  of  a  plain-looking 
light  wood,  with  a  dark-brown  peculiar  broad  vein  in  it.  This 
wood,  at  least  fine  specimens  of  it,  valued,  as  I  was  told,  higher 
than  gold. 

After  the  creeses  had  been  taken  away,  the  gamelang  com- 
menced anew,  and  in  the  minor  key,  soft  and  hardly  audible,  as 
far-off  sounding  deep-toned  bells,  seemingly  without  the  least 
connection,  and  yet  so  interwoven  with  each  other,  that  the  ear 
followed  doubtingly  the  soft  and  even  melodious  strain. 

Now  the  tune  taking  a  more  lively  character,  altered  to  a 
quicker  theme ;  it  sounded  like  a  war-song,  then  as  a  battle- 
hymn  calling  the  warriors  to  the  fight ;  the  quick  step  of  the 
storming,  with  sharp  and  monotonous  sounds,  was  given  by  one 
instrument,  and  as  in  scorn  and  mockery  single  sharp  strokes 
rung  out  between. 

I  had  shut  my  eyes,  not  to  have  my  attention  drawn  off  for  a 
single  moment  from  these  strains,  and  when  I  opened  them  a 
little  girl  was  kneeling  in  the  room,  and  arranging  six  bows  and 
arrows  upon  the  carpet  for  the  dancers.  Soon  after  the  bajaderes 
re-entered,  but  this  time  more  slowly  than  at  first,  and  again  and 
again  passing,  then  repassing  each  other,  and  grasping  each 
other's  hands  for  the  first  time.  Suddenly  those  war-like  sound- 
ing strains  recommenced,  and  as  if  driven  by  some  irresistible 
power  each  of  the  maidens  flew  to  her  place,  and  caught  one  of 
the  bows  and  arrows.  Quicker  and  quicker  the  wild,  threaten- 
ing, challenging  notes  floated  upon  the  air,  the  bows  were  raised, 
the  shafts  pointed  to  the  bosom  of  the  opponent ;  but  they  did 
not  leave  the  string — those  sad  eyes  turned  themselves  away, 
the  arrow-points  sought  the  ground,  and  slowly  and  sorrowfully 
they  shook  their  heads.  So  silent  the  spectators  sat,  so  softly 
those  scarcely  touched  bells  sent  their  trembling  sounds  through 
the  room,  that  the  golden  spangles  upon  the  maidens'  brows  were 
heard  tinkling  clear  and  plaintively. 

Again  the  former  dance  began,  again,  and  as  it  seemed  more 
determined,  they  renewed  the  combat ;  but  love  was  stronger  in 
their  hearts  than  hate,  no  arrow  left  the  string,  only,  as  if  com- 
pelled, they  sometimes  kept  their  hostile  attitudes  ;  and  often  it 
was,  as  if  they  wanted  to  throw  down  their  weapons  to  fly  into 
each  other's  arms. 

I  have  never  seen  a  more  noble  and  chaste,  and  at  the  same 


THE  TREANGER  REGENTSCHAPPEN.  561 

time  more  touching  pantomime  in  my  life.  The  crowd  before 
the  doors,  held  in  awe  up  to  this  time  by  the  presence  of  their 
chief,  were  evidently  moved  by  the  spectacle ;  and  when  the 
sisters — for  like  Horatii  and  Curatii  of  old,  sister  against  sister 
was  forced  here  to  the  unnatural  fight — raised  their  bows,  a  low 
murmur  of  pity  flew  through  the  multitude  ;  and  the  swelling 
notes  of  the  instruments  seemed  to  rejoice  that  no  blood  was  shed. 

But  now  the  excitement  of  the  moment  had  been  raised  to  the 
highest  point ;  one  party  of  the  sisters  flying  to  their  places,  raised 
their  bows  and  directed  their  arrows,  as  if  at  last  determined  to 
wound  the  hearts  of  their  opponents  ;  but  the  latter  lowered  their 
weapons,  and  offered  with  averted  faces,  their  breasts  to  the  foe. 
Then  the  bows  rattled  to  the  ground,  and  flying  into  each  other's 
arms,  while  the  crowd  outside  exultingly  shouted  their  praise, 
and  the  gamelangs  with  thundering  strains  announced  the  vic- 
tory of  love,  the  sisters  renewing  the  dance  in  a  more  lively 
measure,  celebrated  their  reconciliation. 

The  natives  outside  the  door  grew  perfectly  frantic  with  ex- 
citement, and  so  extraordinarily  well  the  pantomime  was  exe- 
cuted, I  need  not  be  ashamed  to  acknowledge  that  a  tear  stole 
from  my  eye. 

The  dance  seemed  to  be  concluded  with  this,  and  thanking 
the  Regent  for  that  really  splendid  entertainment,  we  left  his 
residence. 

The  Europeans  in  Bandong,  and  of  the  neighboring  tea  and 
coffee  plantations,  have  every  Saturday  night  a  little  club ;  this 
Saturday  it  was  at  the  Assistant-resident's  house,  where  most  of 
the  visitors  had  already  assembled.  Out  of  a  strange  fairy-like 
world,  I  entered  as  if  carried  here  by  magic,  into  a  perfectly 
European  saloon.  Here  I  found  fashionably-dressed  ladies  and 
gentlemen,  servants  presenting  tea  and  confitures,  whist  and 
ombre-tables,  and  chatting,  laughing  groups ;  but  my  head  ached 
too  much  from  the  spectacle  I  had  just  seen,  and  heard,  and  felt, 
to  be  able  to  take  any  part  in  the  general  amusement,  so  I  sat 
quietly  in  one  of  the  corners,  watching  the  busy,  lively,  happy 
world  around  me  in  a  half  dream. 

Next  day,  still  a  little  weak  from  that  last  faintness,  I  took  a 
ride  through  the  village  in  the  Resident's  carriage,  with  his  sister 
and  children.  A  couple  of  the  oppass,  or  policemen  on  horse- 
back accompanied  us.  It  was  a  Sunday,  the  weather  beautiful, 


562  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

and  the  shady  little  place  with  its  cosey  huts,  flowery  hedges, 
and  sweet-scented  shrubs  and  gardens,  the  waving  palm-trees 
and  its  motley  population  in  the  wide  and  regular  hedge  inclosed 
streets,  was  extremely  beautiful. 

The  chief  part  of  the  town,  the  Plaza  of  Bandong,  is  the  open 
space  between  the  buildings  of  the  Assistant-resident  and  that 
of  the  Regent ;  these  two  taking  in  the  two  opposite  sides,  while 
the  Mohammedan  mosque  flanks  a  third,  and  gardens  the  fourth 
— the  inner  space  being  planted  all  around  in  regular  rows  with 
the  holy  trees  of  the  Javanese,  the  waringhees,  which  are  always 
kept  before  their  temples  or  houses  of  their  chiefs.  Their  beauti- 
ful and  mighty  growth  entitle  them  to  this  honor,  and  I  have  not 
seen  many  trees  throughout  the  whole  world  which  have  made  such 
a  powerful  impression  upon  me  as  some  of  these  waringhees.  It 
is  also  the  only  tree  I  know  of  that  grows  up  high  and  majestic, 
stretching  over  an  immense  space  sometimes,  without  having  any 
trunk  at  all.  The  waringhee  is  only  root  and  branches. 

Around  the  tree  the  ground  is  for  many  yards  perfectly  covered, 
with  a  net  of  strong  unyielding  roots,  these  rising  up  form,  by 
their  union,  a  stem  or  trunk,  sometimes  for  twelve  and  fifteen 
feet,  which  looks  like  a  large  fagot  spread  out ;  but  you  can  trace 
the  roots  from  the  ground  up  into  its  wide  and  gigantic  branches. 
These  send  off  on  their  outer  tips  long  and  elastic  leaf-covered 
fibres,  which  hang  down  in  long  and  beautiful  garlands  nearly 
reaching  the  ground,  forming  a  full  arid  magnificent  drapery 
around  the  stem,  while  the  branches  are  sending  down  fresh 
shoots  to  their  mother  earth,  to  form  a  forest  in  the  course  of 
time  round  the  main  body  of  the  tree.  If  these  shoots  are  kept 
cut  off  above  the  ground,  before  they  reach  the  bottom,  they 
swing  in  large  waving  masses  in  a  gray  silver  color,  under  the 
dark-green  shade  of  the  garland-like  branches. 

We  went  through  the  main  streets  of  the  little  villages,  prin- 
cipally through  those  parts  where  the  pasar  or  market  is  held,  and 
where  were  the  greatest  number  of  stores  and  open  fruit  sheds. 
Each  little  spot  seemed  to  be  made  use  of  by  the  traders,  mostly 
Chinese,  to  spread  out  their  stores  and  goods  ;  then  with  crossed 
legs  they  squatted  inside  their  open  sheds  awaiting  customers,  or 
praising  outspread  kerchiefs  and  sarongs,  to  a  couple  of  country- 
girls,  who  had  come  from  the  nearest  rampongs  to  buy  their 
necessaries. 


THE  TREANGER  REGENTSCHAPPEN.  563 

The  whole  pasar  offered  a  lively  and  animating  spectacle,  but  for 
one  thing — the  slavish  behavior  displayed  every  where.  As  soon 
as  the  carriage  of  the  Resident  rolled  through  the  street,  and  pass- 
ed the  stands  or  houses,  the  men  not  only  uncovered' their  heads 
— I  could  not  have  seen  any  thing  extraordinary  in  that — but 
they  squatted  down  to  the  ground,  in  devoted  submissiveness ; 
even  the  women  had  their  backs  turned  to  the  carriage,  as  not 
worthy  to  look  upon  it ;  their  heads  bowed  down,  waiting  till  the 
vehicle  of  their  white  master  had  passed. 

The  Chinese  particularly  seemed  to  rejoice  in  showing  their 
devotion ;  even  from  the  backs  of  their  little  habitations,  where 
they  might  have  remained  unnoticed.  No,  they  jumped  forward 
to  cower  down  in  the  streets,  before  their  doors.  The  natives 
though  try  to  avoid  such  devotion  wherever  they  can  ;  the  women 
and  girls  slip  by,  if  the  carriage  does  not  come  upon  them  un- 
awares, into  little  alleys,  or  into  some  hut  or  garden,  and  the  men 
take  another  street,  if  they  can  find  one.  A  right  forward  fellow 
may  perchance  be  found  standing  up  straight  while  the  carriage 
passes,  and  only  pulling  his  hat  half  from  his  poll ;  but  the  police 
look  very  angry  at  such  an  insult,  and  assail  the  culprit  maybe 
with  menacing  words.  This  is  the  extreme  left  side  of  the  mount- 
aineers— the  ultra-democratic  part  of  the  population ;  and  the 
Dutch  government  may  be  well  satisfied  if  that  is  as  yet  so 
weakly  represented. 

Not  only  in  the  stands  and  stores,  are  goods  offered  for  sale, 
traders  walk  about  through  the  streets,  with  their  baskets  or  cali- 
bashes  swinging  fore  and  aft  from  the  ends  of  a  piece  of  bamboo 
five  feet  long,  or  some  elastic  stick  upon  their  shoulder.  They 
most  generally  carry  fruits,  vegetables,  cakes,  baked  and  boiled 
rice,  mats,  basket-work,  foot-mats,  &c.  Their  customers  are 
principally  the  inhabitants  of  the  neighboring  rampongs,  that  come 
in  here  with  rice,  the  produce  of  their  own  fields  to  carry  out  with 
them  what  they  need  in  their  little  households  ;  or  what  they 
need  not,  but  what  foreigners  and  speculating  strangers  have 
taught  them  to  regard  as  necessary.  A  great  many  females  I 
saw  among  the  crowds  of  purchasers  ;  they  were  mostly  fine  and 
beautifully  shaped  figures,  half-naked  maidens  from  out  the  shady 
palm-tree  groves. 

The  language  here  is  entirely  Sunda  ;  at  least,  with  all  the 
rampong  and  tradespeople,  while  Chinese,  as  well  as  those  who 


564  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

come  in  contact  with  the  whites,  understand  and  speak  the  Malay 
language. 

As  the  reader  knows,  nearly  all  these  islands  of  the  Indian  seas, 
have  been  overrun  in  former  times  by  warlike  Malayan  tribes  ; 
the  mountaineers,  alone  the  original  owners  of  the  soil  kept  their 
possessions — and  in  some  islands  do  yet,  though  the  low  lands 
have  been  occupied  and  conquered  by  Europeans — as  in  Manilla 
for  one  ;  in  the  mountains,  therefore,  they  have  not  parted  with 
their  mother  tongue,  to  change  it  for  the  language  of  their  con- 
querors. The  Sunda  is  consequently  also  entirely  different  from 
the  Malay,  and  there  was  no  chance  of  my  learning  more  of  it, 
than  the  most  necessary  and  simple  words,  and  these  only  with 
difficulty. 

More  difficult  still  is  the  Djavanese  language,  upon  the  east- 
ern half  of  the  island  ;  for  there  every  body  has  not  to  learn  one, 
but  three  different  and  very  distinct  tongues  to  make  use  of,  even 
in  every  day  life.  They  have,  firstly,  a  language  for  their  chiefs 
and  nobles,  another  for  the  middle,  arid  a  third  for  their  lower 
classes.  Each  of  these  three  classes  converse  in  their  own  tongue, 
but  speaking  to  a  lower  or  higher  class,  they  are  bound  to  adopt 
their  language  ;  a  gentleman,  for  instance,  of  the  first  of  these 
classes,  or  castes,  would  demean  himself  to  address  one  of  the 
lower  classes  in  his  own  language,  as  it  would  be  an  insult  to 
him  to  be  addressed  by  those  of  a  lower  caste,  in  their  tongue. 

In  the  Malay  language,  something  of  a  similarity  is  found  in 
single  words,  as  rita,  goewa,  and  say  a,  but  is  not  carefully  ob- 
served. 

Something  similar  we  have  in  Germany,  at  the  Courts  of  our 
Princes,  where  they  speak  mostly  French,  but  to  the  common 
people  the  inferior  language,  German ;  we  have  not  come  yet,  to 
bring  the  people  to  the  Court  language,  and  they  have  only 
answered  once,  in  French. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

TEA  AND  COFFEE  GARDENS THE  TANCUBAN  PROW. 

NEXT  morning  I  took  a  ride  to  visit  the  tea-gardens  of  Mr. 
Brumstede,  at  Tjioem  Boeloeit  (Tjeeoom  boolooit).  Taking  one 
of  the  oppass  with  me,  and  after  stopping  a  little  while  at  a  small, 
but  beautiful  waterfall,  we  reached  the  extensive  plantations. 
We  soon  entered  the  extensive  tea-gardens,  whence  we  had  a 
most  splendid  view  nearly  all  over  the  whole  Bandong  valley,  as 
also  the  neighboring  plantations,  with  the  occasionally  active 
volcanic  Tancuban  Prow. 

Mr.  Brumstede  received  me  in  the  most  kind  and  friendly  man- 
ner— and,  in  fact,  I  may  say  the  same  of  all  the  Dutch  gentlemen 
I  have  met  with,  unbounded  hospitality  being  the  rule  with  all. 
The  kind-heartedness  they  show  makes  the  stranger  forget  some- 
times, in  a  few  hours'  stay,  that  he  is  domiciled  with  a  family  he 
never  knew,  never  heard  of  before — in  fact,  they  treat  him  as  if 
he  belonged  to  them. 

After  having  taken  some  refreshments,  Mr.  Brumstede  went 
out  with  me,  to  show  me  over  his  drying  works,  every  particle 
there  having  for  me  the  highest  interest. 

The  preparation  of  the  Javan  tea  is  said  to  differ  from  that  in 
China,  in  some  parts,  but  not  materially. 

We  have  known  some  years  that  in  China  the  black  and  green 
teas  are  taken  from  the  same  plant,  a  different  treatment  making 
the  black  leaves  assume  a  green  color. 

The  tea  bushes  are  kept  short  and  low — they  are  not  allowed 
to  sprout  out  too  much  ;  but  here  a  great  difference  exists  between 
the  collecting  of  the  leaves  and  the  bush  itself  between  China  and 
here.  The  colder  climate,  in  some  parts  of  China,  only  allows 
one  season  for  the  harvest,  and  the  bushes  remain  untouched  the 
other  time,  gaining  new  sap  for  fresh  shoots  and  leaves.  But 
the  hot  sun  of  Java — though  all  these  tea-gardens  lie  very  high, 
and  Tjioem  Boeloeit,  two  thousand  five  hundred  feet  above  the 


566  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

surface  of  the  sea — will  give  them  no  rest ;  it  works  and  drives 
uninterruptedly,  and  the  plucking  of  the  young  shoots  and  leaves 
is  not  left  off  a  single  day  in  the  year — the  Javanese  not  know- 
ing or  caring  about  a  Sunday — rain-days  excepted.  The  laborers 
pluck  a  certain  lower  district,  and  when  they  have  finished,  com- 
mence the  upper  part. 

While  plucking,  the  laborers  pinch  off  the  youngest  three 
leaves,  two  together,  yet  with  the  heart,  and  the  third  just  loos- 
ened, with  the  nails  ;  throwing  them  afterward  into  bamboo- 
baskets,  they  carry  with  them. 

Those  leaves,  destined  to  make  black  tea,  are  placed  directly 
upon  flat  and  open  baskets,  wide  spread  in  the  sun,  there,  before 
all  other  things,  to  fade  or  get  soft.  As  soon  as  they  become  so, 
they  are  taken  into  the  drying-house,  and  rolled  slightly  with 
the  hands. 

The  best  black  tea,  those  fine  silky  buds,  are  not  rolled  at  all, 
but  are  brought  into  the  sun,  like  the  others,  and  then  taken  into 
the  house,  to  be  dried  right  off  upon  a  slow  fire. 

In  the  drying-house,  a  large  furnace  is  placed,  which  runs  out 
into  long  hearths  into  which  are  fitted  slanting  metal  plates,  steel 
or  iron,  not  copper,  running  in  two  different  directions  away  from 
the  fire,  and  taking  more  or  less  heat,  as  they  are  placed  nearer 
or  farther  off  the  stove.  After  those  leaves,  destined  to  become 
black  tea,  have  been  rolled  once,  they  are  placed  upon  the  furth- 
est, and  least-heated  plate  to  evaporate.  After  a  certain  time 
they  are  taken  out  and  rolled  again,  then  they  are  put  upon  some 
hotter  plates,  and  rolled  a  third  time  ;  being  now  ready  for  a  final 
spreading  and  drying,  the  girls  and  children  take  the  tea  up  upon 
the  lofts  of  the  building,  to  sort  it. 

For  this  part  of  the  work,  it  is  necessary  to  have  cheap  labor- 
ers, for  it  requires  .a  quantity  of  hands,  since  every  leaf  has  to  be 
taken  up  and  examined  ;  the  least  particle  which  does  not  belong 
to  the  tea  to  be  taken  out,  each  sickly  or  imperfectly  dried  leaf 
to  be  laid  aside,  and  the  good  ware  sorted  according  to  its  value. 
The  women  acquire  in  this  work  great  skill,  and  the  whole  is  done 
far  quicker  than  a  stranger  can  imagine,  but  still  it  wants  time 
and  hands,  and  where  wages  are  high,  the  cultivation  of  tea 
would  be  out  of  the  question. 

Different  from  this  is  the  treatment  of  the  leaves  from  which 
green  tea  is  to  be  prepared.  These  do  not  come  into  the  sun  at 


TEA  AND  COFFEE  GARDENS.  567 

all,  but  are  carried  directly  into  the  drying-house,  to  soften  there  , 
they  are  afterward  kneaded  in  a  place  where  running  water  as- 
sists the  process,  to  press  out  of  them  the  sharp  juice  of  the  plant. 
This  kneading  is  done  with  the  hands,  and  the  tea-leaves,  which 
are  made  up  in  a  perfect  dough,  are  squeezed  and  pressed  as  much 
as  possible. 

After  this  they  are  at  once  spread  upon  some  stoves  with  iron 
or  steel  plates,  to  dry  even  to  crisping.  They  are  after  this  only 
put  into  the  "  drums"  to  be  thrown  about  a  certain  time  while 
the  air  has  free  admittance  to  them,  to  keep  their  original  green 
color,  and  not  blacken  as  the  other  leaves  do. 

In  former  times,  this  drying  off,  as  the  shaking  of  the  leaves  is 
called,  was  done  by  single  men,  who  put  the  leaves  into  a  flat 
basket,  and  threw  them  up  for  hours.  Only  a  very  small  quantity 
could  be  done  in  this  -way  at  a  time  ;  but  now  Mr.  Brumstede 
has  improved  this  system  so  far,  as  to  have  the  tea  put  into  a 
couple  of  large  drums  or  cylinders,  whose  sides  consist  of  thin 
sheet-iron  with  pierced  holes  like  a  sieve ;  the  air  having  a  free 
draught  through  these,  while  turning  them  continually  like  a  spit, 
is  said  to  give  the  tea  its  green  color. 

As  soon  as  the  green  tea  leaves  these  drums,  it  is  dried  again 
thoroughly  upon  iron-plates,  with  about  one  hundred  and  twenty 
degrees  of  heat,  and  is  put  up  then  ready  for  packing  into  large 
tea-boxes,  set  alongside  the  walls  for  that  purpose. 

Mr.  Brumstede  has,  of  course,  for  all  the  different  parts  of  this 
business,  only  natives  to  watch  it,  and  it  is  interesting  to  see,  as 
the  missionaries  say,  how  well  these  dark  sons  of  a  hot  clime  have 
entered  into  the  spirit  of  the  thing.  So  in  the  packing-room  they 
run  the  lead-sheets  themselves,  which  are  used  inside  the  boxes, 
print  the  papers  for  the  covers  and  paint  them,  and  finish  off  in 
fact,  the  tea-chest,  from  the  first  plucking  of  the  leaf  to  the  last 
sheet  of  painted  paper  pasted  over  the  box. 

The  printing  is  done  in  a  very  primitive  style — the  plates  are 
mostly  wood-cuts,  the  printer  gives  them  very  simply  the  ink, 
and  then  presses  the  paper  upon  them  with  his  hand.  The  paint- 
ing requires  more  skill — with  a  cut  out  piece  of  paste-board, 
which  gives  the  first  rough  outlines  of  the  drawing,  he  finishes 
the  design  at  once ;  when  he  puts  down  for  instance  a  rose,  or 
a  thing  very  much  resembling  a  rose,  at  a  distance,  with  one  flour- 
ish of  his  brush,  he  paints  the  stems  and  leaves  of  the  flower 


568  JOURNEY  HOUND  THE  WORLD. 

afterward  at  discretion  ;  finally  accomplishing  his  task,  consid- 
ering circumstances,  most  commonly  to  his  and  the  tea-chest's 
credit.  , 

Some  days  after  this  I  visited  the  coffee-gardens  of  Lembang  ; 
four  thousand  feet  above  the  surface  of  the  sea,  and  on  the  very 
feet  of  the  volcano  Tancuban  Prow,  where  I  was  received  by  Mr. 
Philippeau  with  true  Java  hospitality. 

Lembang  has  very  extensive  gardens,  and  is  situated  in  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  spots  in  the  world.  Right  in  the  midst  of  a 
tropical  vegetation,  Lembang  lies  far  too  high  to  be  connected 
with  it.  The  cocoa-nut  tree  like  others  of  a  hot  climate,  ceases 
to  ripen  here,  and  has  to  be  brought  from  below — the  cocoa-nut 
palm  will  thrive  a  few  leaves,  but  not  more,  and  even  the  pine- 
apple does  not  grow  well.  Instead  of  these,  which  can  be  brought 
here  in  quantities  from  two  miles  distant  only,  the  strawberry 
ripens,  and  in  the  mountains  I  even  found  wild  raspberries.  As 
we  do  here,  in  our  cold  and  ungenial  climes,  foster  tropical  plants 
into  a  scanty  and  poor  life,  Mr.  Philippeau  on  his  garden-steps 
had,  in  a  couple  of  vases,  a  bunch  of  violets  and  a  crop  of  hearts'- 
ease  or  pansy. 

But  glad  as  I  was  to  find  such  old  and  loved  acquaintances 
up  here  in  the  mountains  of  Java,  the  coffee-gardens  were  still 
more  interesting  to  me,  and  I  took  next  -day  a  good  ride  through 
them. 

The  coffee  must  grow  in  the  shade,  and  therefore  these  gardens 
I  should  have  taken  for  a  forest  instead  of  a  plantation,  had  not 
the  regular  planting  of  the  trees  spoken  to  the  contrary.  The 
tree  most  frequently  taken  to  shade  the  coffee  is  the  dadap,  a 
beautiful  looking  tree  with  large  and  bright  red  blossoms,  which 
are  set  off  extraordinarily  well  by  the  far  darker  foliage  of  the 
coffee. 

The  coffee  bushes,  which  grow,  if  left  alone,  to  trees  of  at  least 
a  height  of  forty  feet,  and  sometimes  more,  are  cut  down  to  from 
fifteen  to  eighteen  feet ;  less  if  possible,  and  this  is  high  enough, 
where  the  ripe  fruits  have  to  be  taken  down  by  human  hands. 

The  coffee  tree  must  be  sufficiently  known  to  the  English  reader 
to  render  unnecessary  a  more  minute  description  ;  but  it  is  not 
generally  known  that  these  gardens,  as  in  fact,  nearly  all  planta- 
tions in  Java,  are  not  kept  by  land-proprietors,  but  by  govern- 
ment, who  give  them  in  charge  of  certain  men  to  overlook,  get 


TEA  AND  COFFEE  GARDENS.  569 

the  fruits  brought  in  prepared  for  the  market,  and  grant  them 
for  this  a  certain  and  very  good  per  centage. 

The  planting  of  the  trees,  as  with  nearly  all  the  other  culti- 
vations, government  or  the  directory  of  the  cultures  sees  done ; 
government  also  forces  the  natives  at  certain  times  in  the  year  to 
work  for  a  certain  amount  of  money.  These  coffee  gardens  are 
divided  into  large,  regular  squares,  and  the  different  inhabitants 
of  the  neighboring  kampongs,  have  their  particular  districts  where 
they  pluck  the  ripe  coffee  cherries  and  carry  them  to  the  mill, 
getting  paid  the  quantity  they  bring  in  by  the  weight ;  being 
obliged,  however,  to  finish  the  district  in  a  stated  time.  The  cof- 
fee-planters have  only  to  deliver  a  certain  stipulated  quantum  to 
government  for  their  per  centage  ;  what  more  they  are  able  to 
raise  they  receive  a  higher  price  for  from  government,  but  only 
from  government,  for  they  are  not  allowed  to  sell  it  to  any  one 
else  ;  and  even  the  Assistant-Resident  in  Bandong,  the  first  per- 
son in  the  district,  had  to  send  down  to  Batavia  for  the  coffee  he 
wanted  for  his  own  use. 

In  this  system,  the  interests  of  all  those  who  have  a  hand  in 
the  business  is  not  considered  only,  but  is  the  chief  feature,  and 
the  result  has  shown  how  wisely  things  were  arranged.  I  am 
fully  convinced  that  there  is  not  a  better  managed  colony,  and 
one  which  yields,  therefore,  a  larger  profit  in  the  whole  world 
•  than  this  island. 

The  poor  natives  alone  suffer ;  for  this  practical  system  of  cul- 
tivation, though  it  makes  a  garden  out  of  a  wilderness,  makes 
slaves  of  its  inhabitants.  Do  not  tell  me  that  their  condition  is 
improved  by  this  system — that  they  have  many  necessaries — ay, 
even  luxuries  they  never  thought  of  before,  and  are  able  to  enjoy 
an  abundance  they  knew  not  formerly.  It  is  nonsense.  When 
did  they  need  any  thing  they  did  not  know?  Can  you  call  a 
thing  a  necessary,  if  I  do  not  want  it  ?  No,  the  strangers  taught 
them  these  things  ;  and  their  condition  never  can  be  called  im- 
proved. If  I  take  the  free-will  from  a  man,  and  force  him  to 
work,  I  have  certainly  not  bettered  his  condition,  though  I  supply 
him  with  the  means  to  wear  silk  and  velvet,  arid  eat  turtle-soup 
or  any  thing  else.  On  the  other  side — teaching  a  man  a  neces 
sity,  is  wrong — though  you  may  defend  it  on  the  score  of  national 
economy  as  much  as  you  please.  Even  if  I  show  him  how  to 
satisfy  it — have  I  bettered  him  by  that,  particularly  if  I  reap  the 


570  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

profit  which  arises  from  the  sale  to  him  of  these  newly-acquired 
necessities  ?  It  is  exactly  this — you  shave  my  head  in  a  severe 
winter,  and  then  sell  me  a  warm  cap.  *  Of  course,  the  cap  keeps 
my  head  warm,  and  I  need  it  from  that  tmie ;  but  I  do  not  see 
any  reason  why  I  ought  to  be  obliged  to  you  for  it — the  cap  only 
keeps  my  head  as  warm  as  my  hair  would  have  done ;  but  why 
did  you  not  leave  it  to  me  ? — only  to  sell  me  the  cap. 

It  must,  however,  be  acknowledged,  that  the  Hollander  leaves 
the  native  in  his  home,  and  to  his  gods,  and  does  not  trouble  his 
soul  as  well  as  his  body.  Their  households  and  their  household 
gods  are  left  to  them ;  and  they  are  not  driven  from  the  graves 
of  their  fathers  by  deeds  and  contracts,  of  which  they  understand 
nothing,  and  by  persuasion  and  agreements  closed  with  some 
chiefs,  and  enforced  finally  upon  the  whole  nation,  as  English 
and  Americans  have  done  only  too  frequently. 

It  is  true,  circumstances  alter  cases,  and  I  am  not  certain  that 
the  Dutch  government  would  not  have  acted  with  the  islanders 
in  another  way  if  its  own  interest  had  come  into  question ;  but 
we  can  not  judge  things  as  they  might  have  been,  but  as  they 
are,  and  in  this  respect  I  place  the  Dutch,  as  regards  their  colonies 
in  Java,  far  over  all  other  nations.  How  they  have  acted  in  the 
Moluccas,  is  another  question. 

The  Christian  religion  also  could  not  make  the  islanders  better 
than  they  are  in  their  Mohammedan  belief,  and  in  their  actions 
and  lives.  They  are  peaceable,  hospitable,  pious,  and  honest 
(and  that  is  more  in  fact,  than  nearly  all  the  missionaries  can 
say  of 'their  converts) ;  and  the  result,  where  some  of  them  were 
brought  over  to  Christianity,  has  shown  in  almost  every  instance 
what  an  unhappy  alteration  has  been  wrought  in  their  existence. 
They  became,  before  all  other  things,  drunkards ;  and  priding 
themselves  upon  their  newly  acquired  quality,  seemed  to  think 
every  thing  was  accomplished  by  having  taken  that  step.  Gov- 
ernment, therefore,  does  not  like  to  see  missionaries  go  among  the 
people  ;  and  if  it  does  not  prevent  their  teaching,  most  certainly 
does  not  support  it. 

Some  years  ago,  American  or  English  missionaries  came  to  the 
neighboring  island,  Bali,  wanting  to  teach  the  islanders  the  true 
faith,  and  asking  permission  to  do  this  of  the  Rajah  chief  of  Bali 
— the  Rajah  Kassiman.  The  chief  seemed  to  have  no  objection, 
only  he  wanted  to  hear  first,  in  what  this  new  belief  consisted, 


TEA  AND  COFFEE  GARDENS.  571 

and  what  they  wanted  to  teach  his  people,  that  he  might  be  able 
to  judge  if  such  a  new  doctrine  was  an  advantage.  Then  the 
preachers,  with  the  help  of  an  interpreter,  to  convince  him  of  the 
purity  of  their  intentions,  made  him  acquainted  with  the  princi- 
ples of  the  Christian  religion,  and  the  leading  incidents  in  the  life 
of  our  Saviour. 

Rajah  Kassiman  listened  without  the  least  interruption  to  the 
end,  then,  waving  his  hand  in  a  friendly  way  toward  the  white 
man,  the  black  and  stubborn  heathen  said  :  "  They  were  perfectly 
welcome  to  preach  all  that  they  had  just  told  him,  to  his  subjects 
— for  none  of  them  would  believe  a  word  of  it." 

So  much  is  certain,  none  of  the  Bali,  islanders  were  converted 
to  Christianity,  and  the  missionaries  at  last  had  to  abandon  the 
enterprise. 

The  coffee-mills,  where  the  ripe  coffee  is  freed  of  its  husk  first, 
and  afterward  dried,  are  very  simple,  and  not  quite  perfect ;  for 
I  heard  several  complaints  about  some  parts  of  the  machines, 
which  could  most  certainly  be  altered  and  improved.  The  greater 
portion  of  them,  in  fact,  all  the  improvements  made,  are  English. 

The  process  of  drying  the  coffee-berries  is  rather  tedious,  since 
the  coffee  is  inclosed  in  a  kind  of  cherry — in  size  and  even  taste 
not  unlike  our  own,  only  far  sweeter — which  has  to  be  removed. 
For  this  purpose,  the  whole  coffee-cherries  are  thrown  into  large 
stone  vats,  where  they  lie  a  certain  time  in  water,  to  loosen  their 
flesh,  or,  at  least,  to  open  and  soften  it.  After  this,  they  are  taken 
out,  and  dried  in  the  sun,  large  sheds  being  provided,  which  run 
on  little  wheels  in  a  kind  of  railroad,  to  cover  those  places  where 
the  coffee  is  placed  to  dry,  directly  a  shower,  frequent  in  this 
latitude,  should  set  in.  The  coffee — the  shells  now  partly  soaked, 
partly  roasted  off — is  thrown  into  a  mill,  which  is  provided  with 
a  large  water-wheel — a  machine  that  will  be  improved,  I  am 
sure,  in  a  short  time.  As  yet  it  consists  of  a  long  circular  trough, 
in  which  a  large  stone  is  continually  rolled  round  by  water-power, 
to  crush  the  dry  shells,  while  a  small  rake,  following  the  stone, 
loosens  those  parts  that  have  been  pressed  down  too  hard.  The 
trough  is  about  fifteen  inches  wide,  and  set  up  in  a  circle,  so  as 
to  enable  the  stone,  which  goes  out  from  the  main  and  upright 
standing  shaft  by  an  arm,  from  which  it  is  suspended  by  a  chain, 
to  be  pulled  over  the  coffee  husks.  The  cherries  are  sifted  after- 
ward ;  but  the  stone  is  not  able  to  press  upon  all  of  them  with 


572  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

equal  force,  since  the  coffee-cherries  are  of  unequal  size ;  and  the 
consequence  is,  the  small  ones  are  untouched,  and  require  after- 
ward a  very  tedious  gleaning. 

But  the  most  slow  and  laborious  work  is  the  assorting  after- 
ward the  cleansed  berries,  which  has  to  be  done,  as  with  the  tea,  by 
women  and  children ;  but  is  far  more  disagreeable,  as  the  coffee, 
in  its  dried  and  crushed  husks,  holds  an  immense  quantity  of 
dust.  Only  where  work  can  be  had,  as  in  Java,  by  commanding 
a  certain  number  of  people  to  come,  and  by  paying  them  after- 
ward what  wages  the  employer  thinks  fit,  not  what  the  laborer 
may  ask,  or  solely  by  slave-labor,  can  such  produce  be  cultivated 
profitably. 

Singular  is  the  way  coffee  is  used  in  the  country  where  it  grows 
wild — Sumatra — by  the  natives ;  for  they  only  take  off  the  young 
leaves  from  the  tree  and  make  a  kind  of  tea  of  them. 

There  were  two  visitors  upon  the  plantation  with  me  at  the 
time — Dutch  gentlemen,  officers  of  the  army,  who  had  fought 
through  the  Balinese  war,  which  they  knew  how  to  relate.  I 
passed  with  them — enjoying  the  artistical  performance  on  the 
piano  of  Mr.  Philippeau — some  very  pleasant  evenings  in  that 
beautiful  spot ;  and  shall  not  easily  forget  Lembang. 

Being  near  an  active  volcano,  I  wanted  to  visit  it ;  and  one  of 
the  officers — the  other  being  up  here  on  the  mountains  to  restore 
his  health,  which  was  in  too  weak  a  state  for  climbing — offered 
to  accompany  me.  We  started  on  a  beautiful  morning — and  the 
mornings  are  nearly  all  beautiful,  as  the  rains  commonly  set  in 
only  about  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon — with  five  or  six  Malays 
and  horses,  and  with  as  much  provisions  as  if  we  were  going  to 
make  a  land  route  to  some  unknown  part,  for  many  a  long  day, 
not  for  a  distance  of  three  or  four  miles  walk,  to  be  back  to  dinner ; 
but  the  colonists  in  these  hot  climates  are  used  to  have  a  perfect 
retinue  around  them  wherever  they  move,  never  thinking  of  going 
by  themselves  ;  and  if  the  stranger  wants  to  free  himself  from  this 
constraint,  he  will  find  it  hard  work,  for  they  will  not  let  him. 

Tancuban  Prow  is,  in  the  Malay  tongue,  the  name  for  "  Upset 
Prow ;"  for  the  mountain  ridge  has  from  afar  the  appearance  of 
a  boat,  or  a  prow,  turned  upside  down.  We  soon  lost  sight  of  the 
mountain  as  we  entered  the  wilderness,  which  inclosed  the  coffee- 
gardens  on  all  sides,  except  toward  Bandong.  A  small  path  led 
into  the  mighty  forest,  and  our  little  horses  ran  briskly  along, 


THE  TANCUBAN  PROW.  673 

having  to  jump,  as  we  had  reached  a  higher  part,  frequently  over 
a  kind  of  gully  the  rain  had  worn  here  into  a  small  and  open 
channel.  Here  I  met  no  more  the  dead  and  lifeless  wilderness, 
I  had  found,  much  to  my  astonishment,  on  coming  over  the 
Megamendong — during  a  hunting  trip  I  had  made  toward  the 
Malabar  side  from  Bandong,  where  I  had  seen  neither  bird  nor 
butterfly.  Here  the  woods  showed  life  ;  for  directly  we  entered 
the  thickets,  we  heard  the  wild  cries  and  screams  of  a  troop  of 
monkeys,  as  they  chased  each  other  on  the  hill- sides  :  now  we 
saw  them  in  a  valley  on  our  left,  where  they  were  running  up 
and  down  a  large  kehadji,  chattering  and  yelling,  not  a  moment 
resting  quietly  on  one  branch  or  limb.  The  runcong,  the  large 
pepper-bird,  opened  his  voice,  and  we  heard  the  heavy  flapping 
of  his  wings,  as  he  flew  from  tree  to  tree ;  and  even  the  ulung- 
ulung — a  pretty  red-tinted  hawk,  with  snow-white  breast  and 
head — was  soaring  on  high. 

We  had  heard  of  the  rhinoceros  being  in  this  neighborhood,  but 
could  see  no  signs  of  him,  nor  tracks  ;  not  far  distant,  however, 
was — as  it  was  said — one  of  the  best  districts  for  these  animals, 
and  I  determined  to  pay  them  a  visit  before  I  left  the  place. 
We  were  not  hunting  now,  though  I  had  taken  my  gun,  in  case 
I  should  meet  any  thing  accidentally.  Steeper  and  steeper  the 
path  became,  till  we  had  to  get  down  from  our  animals,  not  to 
tire  them  too  much.  The  vegetation  was  extremely  thick  and 
luxuriant ;  no  sign  of  a  volcanic  action  could  I  trace,  except  the 
lava  in  our  path,  though  we  had  closely  approached  the  place. 
Scarcely  had  we  crossed  the  nearly  dry  bed  of  a  very  sandy 
creek,  on  the  nearest  slope,  when  the  devastating  effects  of  the 
fire  commenced,  and  on  the  very  edge  of  the  fresh  and  thriving 
thicket,  we  found  charred  stumps  and  barren  volcanic  soil, 
thrown  down  trees,  and  here  and  there  sickly  sprouting  roots — 
we  had  entered  the  region  of  the  fire-goddess. 

Climbing  up,  now  about  a  hundred  yards,  where  even  the 
dried  and  half-burnt  stumps  ceased,  and  nothing  but  rough  and 
sharp  lava  remained,  we  reached  the  edge  of  the  crater ;  the 
scene  opened  suddenly  before  us  into  a  wide  yawning  valley,  out 
of  which  a  thin  smoke  curled  in  blue  and  varying  masses. 

This  being  the  first  crater  I  ever  saw,  it  made  upon  me  a 
most  deep,  and  at  the  same  time,  a  singular  impression.  As 
mysterious  as  the  stars  on  high,  which  follow  their  orbits,  seen 


574  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

but  not  comprehended  by  us  ;  under  our  feet  lay  another  power- 
ful world,  upon  whose  threshold  we  stood,  but  which  we  dared 
not  enter. 

What  an  immense  power  was  lying  in  this  imperfectly  restrain- 
ed element,  which  had  been  able  to  create  and  work  up  a  mount- 
ain, throwing  out  of  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  sometimes  as  in 
reckless  play,  its  glowing  masses  ;  what  mighty  power  was  work- 
ing and  boiling  in  this  abyss,  out  of  whose  thin  crust  the  blue  sul- 
phur-smoke steamed  up  in  slow,  irregular  puffs,  like  that  of  a 
slumbering,  deep  breathing  monster,  that  is  raising,  or  only  shak- 
ing itself  next  minute  to  make  the  earth  tremble  and  tear  the 
neighboring  mountains.  Can  you  blame  the  poor  Indian  if  he 
gives  to  such  places  the  habitation  of  his  bad  and  powerful  spir- 
its ?  Bring  here  one  of  our  common  laborers,  land-laborers,  accus- 
tomed to  toil  on  through  life  in  his  stupidity  and  fear  of  G-od,  who 
has  his  head  full  of  stories  of  sulphur  and  brimstone,  and  "  howl- 
ing and  gnashing  of  teeth,"  put  him  upon  the  edge  of  this  preci- 
pice, let  him  feel  the  hot  steam  of  the  sulphur,  let  him  hear  the 
deep  growl  of  the  unknown  power  below,  and  watch  if  he  does 
not  cry  in  deep  horror  and  fear,  "  those  are  the  gates  of  hell !" — 
the  ejaculation  which  parts  his  lips,  what  else  is  it  but  the  low 
and  quick-murmured  exorcism,  the  Javanese  brings  to  the  dreaded 
power  below  ? 

And  why  shall  I  deny  it  ?  I  was  really  sorry  that  we  had 
become  here  on  this  earth  so  extremely  wise,  practical,  and  pro- 
saic, as  to  be  able  to  explain  all  these  wonderful  appearances  so 
very  naturally  and  correctly — as  we  think,  of  course.  What 
have  we  gained  by  it  ? — little  except  the  proof  of  our  own  weak- 
ness and  nothingness ;  and  what  lost  ?  every  thing ;  we  have 
robbed  our  woods  and  forests  of  their  hobgoblins  and  dryads,  our 
springs  and  streams  of  their  nymphs  and  Undines,  our  mountains 
of  their  fairies  and  gnomes  ;  ay,  our  very  homes  of  their  house- 
hold gods,  and  the  cradles  of  our  babes  of  their  guardian  angels. 
All  those  lovely  pictures  and  fairy  tales  with  which  Grod,  who 
best  knew  what  was  good  and  useful  for  His  children,  had  deco- 
rated our  earthly  homes,  we  have  torn  down  and  thrown  out  of 
the  window  ;  and  in  their  place  furnished  the  dwelling  with 
shelves  and  drawers,  that  retain  the  most  exact,  but  also  the 
most  prosaical  character  imaginable.  We  know  now,  it  is  true, 
to  the  smallest  particle,  what  each  drawer  and  shelf  contains,  and 


THE  TANCUBAN  PROW.  575 

what  is  the  reason  it  must  lie  just  in  this  and  not  in  the  next 
partition  ;  we  know  all  the  layers  of  minerals  or  fossils,  and  the 
species  of  rock  and  metals  by  name  ;  we  have  nearly  all  flowers 
and  blossoms  dried  between  blotting  paper ;  we  have  even  the 
ether  classified  into  its  different  gases,  and  the  water  weighed 
down  to  the  particle  of  a  grain  ;  but  have  we  become  happier  by 
this — have  we  remained  as  happy  as  we  were  ?  No,  the  whole 
poetry  of  our  lives  is  gone  to  the  dickens,  and  even  the  poets 
themselves — like  the  diurnal  butterflies  surprised  by  night,  are 
fluttering  frightened  here  and  there,  lighting  at  last,  not  knowing 
where  to  go,  upon  the  very  nest  of  their  enemy  the  sparrow — and 
have  thrown  themselves  in  pure  despair  upon  the  most  unpoetical 
object  in  creation — upon  politics. 

But,  bless  my  heart !  where  have  I  gone  to  ?  My  imagination 
has  taken  wing  with  the  sulphur- steam  and  ascended  into  ether. 
It  is  time  to  come  back  to  the  edge  of  the  crater,  where  I  was 
descending,  by  rather  a  rough  path,  to  the  pit,  to  watch  the  boil- 
ing and  angry  element  on  its  hearth. 

The  crater  might  have  been  about  three  hundred  feet  deep, 
forming  below  a  narrow  valley,  inclosed  all  around  by  steep,  and 
only  in  some  places  accessible  lava  masses,  while  some  part  of  it, 
and  nearly  half  of  the  space  which  could  be,  called  the  bottom, 
was  taken  up  by  a  small  pond,  formed  seemingly  by  the  descend- 
ing and  collecting  rain-water.  The  centre  of  the  dry  hollow  was 
the  active  part  of  the  volcano,  and  the  hot  steam  came  sometimes 
in  slow  puffs,  sometimes  in  a  steady  smoke,  out  of  several  orifices 
in  the  lava  ;  the  fire  having  formed,  close  to  the  edge  of  the  larg- 
est, a  perfect  pyramid  of  pure  yellow  sulphur,  the  same  material 
crusting  the  lava  all  around.  Going  down  I  had  rather  a  rough 
passage  on  the  sharp  and  crumbling  lava-blocks,  which  frequently 
gave  way  under  my  feet,  rolling  to  the  bottom,  and  making  me 
lose  my  balance — once  even  upsetting  me  entirely,  arid  sending 
me  down  into  a  narrow  lava-gulf,  with  torn  hands  and  panta- 
loons. But  I  did  reach  the  bottom  finally,  and  passing  some  lit- 
tle spots  where  the  steam  came  freely  out  of  small  orifices — burn- 
ing my  hand  at  one.  while  trying  to  break  ofTa  part  of  the  lava 
from  its  edge — I  approached  the  crater,  wishing  to  get  a  piece  of 
sulphur  from  the  principal  'scape-pipe. 

Here  I  walked,  though  upon  rather  dangerous  ground,  it 
being  very  much  like  crossing  young  ice  that  you  do  not  know  to 


576  JOURNEY   ROUND   THE   WORLD. 

be  firm  enough,  and  fear  to  hear  crack  and  split  every  minute. 
Carefully,  therefore,  with  a  large  stick  I  had  found  on  the  edge 
of  the  crater,  I  tried  the  hardness  and  strength  of  the  crust  at 
every  step — for  the  thing  began  to  look  dangerous ;  and  one 
place — I  could  not  have  sworn  to  it,  but  I  really  thought  I  could 
see  it  heave  as  if,  the  mountain  was  taking  breath — warned  me 
so  much  to  be  careful,  that  I  took  my  stick  and  thrust  it  down 
upon  the  lava  as  hard  as  I  could,  jumping  back  the  next  instant, 
not  slowly  you  may  be  sure,  for  the  stick  broke  the  crust,  and  the 
steam  rushed  out  of  this  new  orifice,  as  it  seemed,  with  double 
force. 

Even  where  I  now  stood,  having  retreated  a  few  paces,  and 
feeling  my  feet  getting  rather  warm,  I  put  down  my  hand  to 
touch  the  lava  and  blistered  one  finger,  while  the  steam  rose 
out  here,  as  out  of  a  hundred  pores,  in  a  thin  but  suffocating 
mist. 

To  go  back  toward  the  main  crater,  or  to  stay  here,  became 
equally  dangerous  ;  and  our  guide  related  to  us  afterward,  how 
a  young  Englishman  once  had  entered  this  identical  crater,  broke 
through  the  lava,  and  burned  his  feet  dreadfully.  I  wanted  a 
remembrance  of  my  visit,  and  therefore  knocked  off  a  few  pieces 
of  the  lava  from  the  nearest  sulphur  covered  orifices  ;  while  below 
me,  the  volcano  growled,  and  murmured,  and  hissed,  and  work- 
ed. The  old  sorcerer  down  below — or  somebody  else — I  fancied, 
was  stirring  up  the  fiery  pap,  upsetting  every  thing  in  his  way,  and 
seasoning  the  mass  with  granite  blocks,  and  broken  off  cliffs ; 
while  each  time  he  threw  in  a  lump,  the  steam  rose  up  hissing, 
and  the  whole  ground  seemed  to  tremble. 

I  stood  a  long  while  listening,  till  I  felt  rather  uncomfort- 
able. Slowly  retreating,  I  left  the  place ;  and  the  thin  curls  of 
smoke,  following  me  in  the  light  draught  of  air,  seemed  as  if  the 
mountain  sprite,  was  reaching  out  his  arms  to  keep  me  in 
his  realm. 

I  found  it  rather  difficult  to  climb  up  again,  as  I  had  come 
down  one  part  of  the  road  much  quicker  than  I  desired,  and  by 
a  path  where  the  crumbling  lava  masses  would  not  allow  me  to 
use  on  my  return ;  but  at  last,  finding  a  tolerably  good  place,  I 
reached  the  edge  of  the  crater  again,  and  meeting  there  our 
Malay  guide,  who  could  not  comprehend  what  I  had  been  doing 
such  a  long  time  in  that  sulphur  hole.  He  brought  a  tray  full  of 


THE  TANCUBAN  PROW.  577 

glasses  and  decanters  ;  and  a  glass  of  mild  geneva,  after  having 
swallowed  so  much  hot  sulphur-steam  down  there,  tasted  exceed- 
ingly refreshing. 

From  here  we  were  going  to  have  a  double,  and  most  beau- 
tiful spectacle ;  first,  in  the  changing  masses  of  fog  which  had 
lain  upon  the  valley,  and  then  of  the  crater  itself.  Up  to 
this  time  low-sweeping  clouds  and  mists,  if  not  covering  the 
whole  country,  had  hindered  our  view  toward  the  districts  of 
Cravang  and  Cheribon,  and  toward  the  sea-coast;  these  now 
passed  swiftly,  the  sun  came  out,  and  particularly  the  northeast 
district  of  Cheribon,  with  its  coasts  and  capes,  reaching  out  into 
the  deep  blue  sea,  became  visible.  We  could  clearly  distinguish, 
in  a  perfect  sheet  of  light,  the  smallest  valleys  and  gullies,  the 
most  insignificant  peaks  and  ridges  of  those  green  hills,  and  mount- 
ains, sloping  down  to  the  sea-shore,  the  regular  coffee-gardens, 
easily  known  by  the  dark  foliage  of  their  trees  ;  and  the  sharp 
and  regular  outlines  of  the  gardens  ;  the  water  in  the  sun-glitter- 
ing rice-field  ;  and  the  irregular  beds  of  some  mountain  torrents, 
which  had  mined  their  wild  path  into  the  valley.  Far  out  to 
sea,  a  sail  shone  like  a  white  speck  on  the  dark  blue  ocean ;  and 
farther  back — far,  far  in  dusky  distance — an  island,  maybe  a 
small  group  of  islands,  with  the  white  scum  of  the  breakers 
around,  rose,  as  if  out  of  the  deep. 

Ten  minutes,  perhaps,  I  enjoyed,  in  this  picture — the  most 
beautiful  sight  I  have  ever  had,  I  believe — but  suddenly,  as  it 
had  appeared,  it  vanished  again  ;  the  mist  swept  as  it  seemed, 
from  the  neighbouring  mountains,  and  while  looking,  we  were 
surrounded  again  by  a  thick  vail  of  clouds 

In  that  moment  our  attention  was  claimed  by  the  crater,  which 
had  received  by  this  formation  of  the  clouds,  a  new  and  won- 
derful color.  The  sulphur  smoke  was  spreading  in  a  light 
green  vail  over  the  lower  crater,  and  round  the  small  sulphur 
pyramids  within  it,  forming  as  it  were,  the  centre  of  the  whole  ; 
a  thin  light  blue  edge  circled,  opening  and  closing  as  those  soft 
and  seemingly  elastic  rims  of  the  medusae  arid  sea-blubbers.  Now 
and  then  a  full  rainbow  hue  shot  over  the  whole,  darting  its 
glittering  rays  with  lightning  speed  across  the  whole  crater. 
Now  the  entire  splendor  of  these  lights  melted  together,  as  it 
were,  into  one  glorious  emerald-green,  stood  one  moment,  shot 
put  its  rays,  faded,  and  as  the  clouds  closed  over  the  sun  and  be- 

BB 


578  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

came  firmer,  it  sank  away  more  and  more,  taking  at  last  the  old 
steel-gray  again,  out  of  which  the  bright  yellow  of  the  sulphur 
appeared  as  before. 

I  would  walk  with  pleasure  fifty  miles  »to  see  that  spectacle 
again — and  we  stood,  when  the  phenomenon  had  vanished,  a  good 
while  as  in  a  trance,  speechless,  involuntarily  awaiting — hoping  for 
the  reappearance  of  the  light.  Even  our  guide,  who  had  been 
up  here  many  a  time,  assured  us,  he  had  never  seen  such  beau- 
tiful colors  in  the  crater — the  result  perhaps  of  an  accidental  sit- 
uation of  sun  and  clouds. 

Some  dark  clouds  were  rising  now  in  the  north,  and  wanting 
to  reach  the  plantation  before  the  afternoon's  rain,  we  started 
down  the  mountain  slope  on  our  back  tracks,  having  been  out  on 
the  trip  about  seven  hours. 


CHAPTER  V. 

HUNTING    IN    JAVA. 

I  DO  not  think  there  is  a  better  country  for  game,  even  the 
United  States  not  excepted,  than  Java,  upon  the  face  of  the 
earth.  The  interior  of  Africa  I  have  not  seen  yet.  I  have 
hunted  a  great  part  of  my  life,  and  in  the  most  different  parts  of 
the  world — from  the  bear-hunt  in  the  Mississippi  swamps,  down 
to  the  partridge-shooting  in  our  own  country — but  I  never  saw 
such  a  quantity  of  game  together  in  one  small  district,  and  sur- 
rounded by  habitations,  as  in  Java  ;  and  particularly  in  the 
Treanger  Regentschappen — a  district  celebrated  for  game. 

A  year  ago,  his  Excellency  the  Lieutenant-governor  had  a 
large  hunt  arranged  there  in  the  Bandong  flat,  with,  I  believe, 
forty  or  fifty  Europeans  with  guns,  and  three  or  four  hundred 
mounted  natives  ;  and  they  killed — shot  and  slaughtered — some- 
thing better  than  nine  hundred  head  of  deer,  in  not  much  more 
than  three  hours5  time,  after  the  hunt  had  commenced. 

After  I  had  been  a  short  time  in  Bandong,  having  recovered 
a  little  from  the  faint  of  the  first  evening,  the  Regent  very  kindly 
offered  me  horses  and  men  to  take  a  hunting  excursion.  As  I 
did  not  know  for  what  use  a  perfect  multitude  of  servants  fol- 
lowed a  white  man  each  time  he  put  his  feet  in  the  stirrups,  or 
stepped  into  a  carriage,  I  did  not  say  a  word  ;  but  started  one 
morning  out  to  hunt,  as  if  going  to  lead  a  small  army  into  battle. 
But  if  we  had  began  with  a  multitude — and  my  guide  grinned 
when  I  asked  him  if  they  should  all  go  with  us,  nodded  and  said 
there  were  some  more  coming,  for  he  thought  I  had  not  enough 
— there  was  at  every  house  we  passed  some  addition  to  our  train  ; 
our  guide  hallooing  a  few  words,  and  one  of  the  poor  fellows,  as 
it  seemed,  had  to  follow,  whether  he  felt  any  inclination  for 
hunting  or  not. 

I  am  sorry  I  have  not  room  to  give  the  reader  a  full  description 


580  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

of  the  hunt,  though  there  was  certainly  a  great  deal  of  novelty 
and  fun  and  a  fair  share  of  genuine  sport  in  it.  The  second  day 
we  made  a  trip  into  the  mountains  to  kill  a  rhinoceros,  and  had 
rather  a  tedious  ride  through  the  wiry  alang-alang — a  kind  of 
grassy  reed — without  seeing  more  than  the  traces  of  these  power- 
ful animals,  and  those  of  an  old  tiger.  I  was  very  much  pleased 
with  my  party,  though  I  could  not  understand  a  word  they  said  ; 
only  my  chief  guide — who  was,  as  I  heard  afterward,  the  gun- 
smith and  general  factotum  of  the  Regent — speaking  Malay  ;  the 
rest  conversed  in  that  dreadful  Sunda  language.  Wanting  to 
ask  something  of  one  of  them,  I  had  to  take  the  guide  for  an  in- 
terpreter, murder,  as  far  as  I  could,  the  Malay ;  and  squeeze  out 
of  him  afterward  the  answer. 

Going  out  three  times  for  deer,  twice  in  the  morning  and  once 
in  the  evening,  I  shot  five  stout  and  splendid  stags — two  of  them 
with  beautiful  horns — which  I  took  with  me.  Wild  boars  were 
there  also  in  great  numbers,  but  I  never  fired  a  shot  at  them, 
though  they  stopped  sometimes  half  a  minute  within  twenty 
paces  of  me.  I  wanted  some  pretty  deers'  horns,  and  could  do 
nothing  at  all  with  the  hogs,  since  the  natives,  as  good  Mussul- 
men,  do  not  eat  them  ;  but  are  very  fond  of  deer's  meat. 

Snipes — the  small  kind,  and  one  which  on  the  wing  resembles 
exactly  that  of  Louisiana,  in  North  America — I  saw  in  flocks ; 
while  wading  through  the  swamp,  they  darted  up  right  before 
me,  with  their  peculiar  chirping  sound,  flew  about  twenty  paces, 
and  alighted  again,  always  in  sight,  from  where  I  was  standing. 
With  a  good  double-barreled  gun  I  could  have  engaged  to  kill  a 
dozen  in  half  an  hour. 

The  country  round  here,  inclosed  by  the  high  rising  hills  on 
three  sides,  and  only  open  toward  the  little  town  of  Bandong, 
consisted  of  a  wide  swamp  or  reed  brake,  cut  up  frequently  by 
little  creeks  or  branches,  filled  at  the  present  season,  and  making 
me  wade  not  unfrequently  up  to  the  shoulders  in  water,  to  cross 
them  ;  once  wet,  however,  you  do  not  mind  such  a  trip.  Taking 
up  your  gun,  powder,  and  caps — it  is  as  well,  at  the  same  time, 
to  keep  your  paper-money  in  a  little  pouch  round  your  neck — in 
you  drop,  for  it  can  not  be  more  than  swimming ;  and  on  the 
other  bank  you  have  only  to  shake  yourself  like  a  dog,  to  be  fit 
for  use  again. 

Still  I  think  I  was  trusting  rather  too  much  to  my  strong  con- 


HUNTING  IN  JAVA.  581 

stitution  ;  for  not  only  was  I  in  the  wet  all  day,  under  a  tropical 
sun — I  had  once  given  my  white  straw-hat  to  one  of  the  men,  to 
keep  for  me  while  I  was  trying  to  creep  up  to  an  old  deer,  which 
not  coming  within  shooting  distance,  I,  unwilling  to  give  up, 
had  followed  for  hetter  than  two  miles  without  any  thing  on  my 
head,  not  even  a  handkerchief,  with  the  sun,  in  the  morning  at 
ten  o'clock,  shining  full  upon  me.  But  I  never  felt  the  least  in- 
convenience, except  maybe  a  little  headache  in  the  evening. 

Sometimes  the  rhinoceros  comes  down  into  this  level ;  and  the 
English  officer,  with  the  American  merchant,  who  had  hunted 
here  a  few  days  before  me,  came  within  fifty  yards  of  such  an 
old  fellow,  without  knowing  what  it  was — at  least,  without 
firing. 

But  determined  at  least  to  get  in  sight  of  a  rhinoceros,  and  see 
'such  hunting,  after  I  had  killed  five  deer,  I  decided  on  going 
back  to  Bandong,  and  start  up  to  the  north,  where  there  was 
the  best  hunting-ground  for  these  animals,  as  nearly  every  body 
assured  me. 

Mr.  Philippeau  had  sent  out  the  day  before  a  couple  of  men  to 
look  for  rhinoceros'  signs,  and  these  coming  back  during  the 
evening,  gave  the  most  satisfactory  account ;  assuring  us  there 
were  also  some  gangs  of  bantings  (wild  cattle)  over  there,  and 
that  a  male  rhinoceros  had  been  frequently  seen  in  company 
with  one  of  the  wild  cows. 

Do  not  talk  of  the  scandal  of  our  cities ;  of  slandering  neigh- 
bors, and  innocent  people,  at  the  cofFee  or  tea-table — what  of 
that,  if  the  rhinoceros  up  in  the  mountains  is  not  safe  from  simi- 
lar calumnies  ? 

Starting  in  the  afternoon,  I  had  one  of  the  finest  rides  imagin- 
able. The  vegetation  of  this  part  of  the  mountain,  it  being  a 
neighboring  peak  to  the  Tancuban  Prow,  but  more  elevated,  sur- 
passed in  grandeur  every  thing  I  had  seen.  The  arboraceous 
ferns  grew  here  better  than  forty  feet  in  height,  shaking  their  fine 
feathered  crowns  over  a  world  of  wild  pisangs ;  while  here  prin- 
cipally the  Orchidacese  and  air  plants  commence,  filling  every 
space  with  vegetation,  frequently  up  to  the  highest  branches, 
with  their  long,  juicy,  often  singularly  formed  blades  and  leaves, 
and  flower  bunches.  The  trunks  of  the  trees  are  completely 
covered  with  moss,  and  so  is  the  ground,  where  the  grass  allows 
it  to  grow  out,  so  as  not  to  leave  sometimes  one  single  spot,  be  it 


582  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

ever  so  small,  where  the  eye  could  detect  the  color  of  the  bark 
or  the  naked  soil.  Where  we  came  across  the  first  rhinoceros' 
tracks,  the  ground  did  become  visible  ;  the  powerful  animal  hav- 
ing stamped  down  every  thing  before  it,  so  as  to  break  some- 
times a  perfect  path  through  thickets  which  would  have  been 
impassable  without. 

Tracks  and  dung  we  saw  frequently  that  afternoon  ;  the  former 
taking  almost  invariably  the  appearance  of  a  small  trail,  and 
some  of  the  later  being  quite  fresh  ;  but  we  could  not  get  in  sight 
of  one  of  the  animals,  neither  rhinoceros  nor  banting,  till  we 
reached  the  little  mountain  lake  which  had  been  named  to  me 
as  the  central  point  of  all  the  game  up  here,  where  we  recog- 
nized, but  on  the  other  shore,  a  small  gang  of  bantings  feeding 
upon  a  green  and  open  sward. 

My  guide — and  I  had  this  time  six  men  with  me,  though  I 
wanted  but  one — answered  my  hurried  question,  if  we  could  not 
go  round  the  lake  either  by  one  side  or  the  other,  for  it  was 
scarcely  three  miles  in  circumference,  with  a  very  determined 
"  trada"  (no) ;  but  seeing  me  fully  resolved  to  swim  across,  if  I 
could  get  over  in  no  other  manner,  he  promised  to  lead  me  to  a 
path  or  track  where  it  might  be  possible ;  and  starting  now  only 
with  two  men,  leaving  the  rest  at  the  bank,  urgently  desiring 
them  to  make  no  noise,  and  keep  as  much  out  of  sight  as  pos- 
sible, we  entered  the  wild  woods  of  the  most  powerful  vegetation 
imaginable — pressing  on  though  as  quickly  and  silently  as  we 
could. 

But  it  was  of  no  use.  I  shall  not  tire  the  reader  with  the 
long  search  after  the  cattle.  It  was  raining  at  the  time,  and  we 
had  to  wade  sometimes  up  to  our  middle  in  swamps,  and  through 
gullies  ;  so  that  if  I  had  swam  that  lake,  I  could  not  have  got 
more  wet.  Night  was  now  setting  in — and  night  comes  quick 
in  these  climes — so  retreating  as  fast  as  we  could  to  a  place 
where  in  former  times  hunters  had  built  a  shed,  part  of  the  roof 
of  which  was  lying  on  the  ground,  we  crawled  under,  and  passed 
rather  an  uncomfortable  night. 

The  Malay  I  had  taken  with  me  for  my  guide,  and  who  was 
said  to  be  a  great  hunter,  I  always  called  Peter — for  I  could  not 
remember  his  name — had  not  shown  himself  last  night  to  ad- 
vantage ;  choosing,  therefore,  another  out  of  the  crowd,  I  kept 
him  and  Peter  with  me,  sending  the  rest,  forcibly,  as  Peter  pro- 


HUNTING  IN  JAVA.  583 

tested  against  it,  home.     I  always  found  the  greatest  difficulty  to 
get  rid  of  such  retainers. 

Passing  round  the  lake  again,  and  hugging  it  as  close  as  possi- 
ble, to  keep  out  of  the  great  thickets — having  to  wade  now  and 
then  one  of  these  innumerable  sloughs  and  rain-branches  which 
came  gushing  continually  from  all  the  hills  around  into  that  little 
mountain  lake — we  looked  for  a  fresh  rhinoceros'  track  and  soon 
found  one,  where  the  animal,  as  it  seemed,  could  not  have  passed 
more  than  a  few  minutes. 

The  morn  had  been  clear  and  bright,  no  cloud  was  seen  in  the 
sky,  but  a  thick  fog  lay  low  upon  the  woods,  sinking  down  as  it 
were  into  the  ground,  the  higher  the  sun  rose  ;  but  the  bushes 
were  as  wet  as  they  could  be,  and  the  heavy  clear  drops  hung 
upon  them  like  rows  of  pearls,  soaking  us,  while  pressing  through 
them,  just  as  badly,  perhaps  worse,  than  the  most  heavy  rain.  I 
did  not  care  about  getting  wet,  but  I  was  anxious  to  keep  the  gun 
dry  while  holding  the  lock  under  my  arm,  and  the  muzzle,  as  far 
as  the  bushes  would  let  me,  downward. 

We  had  not  long  marched  in  this  way — now  crawling  under 
some  dripping  limbs,  now  avoiding  a  thicket  of  ratan,  the  Bengal 
cane,  with  its  impenetrable  vines  and  threatening  thorns — now 
jumping  into  a  slough,  and  wading  across,  to  climb  up  a  steep 
clayey  bank,  when  we  struck  another  perfectly  fresh  trail,  not 
to  be  mistaken,  for  it  looked  like  a  well-beaten  path  through  a 
thicket.  The  powerful  animal  had  passed  as  it  seemed,  with  us 
along  the  margin  of  the  lake — sometimes,  as  if  feeding,  turning 
up  a  short  distance  toward  the  hill,  and  then  returning  again,  till 
we  lost  the  track  into  the  lake,  into  which  this,  as  well  as  the 
former  animal  had  passed,  and  was  not  to  be  followed  among 
deep  water  and  a  large  and  havy  growth  of  reeds. 

Giving  it  up  at  last,  we  looked  out  for  another  trail,  which 
we  soon  came  upon,  where  two  of  the  clumsy  brutes  had  passed 
through  the  brushwood,  breaking  every  thing  before  them.  Peter 
told  me  (and  I  have  reason  to  believe  it)  that  the  thinness  of  the 
bushes  close  to  the  lake,  was  owing  to  these  heavy  animals 
stamping  the  under-growth  down  into  the  ground,  without  giv- 
ing it  time  to  grow  up  again  to  a  thicket. 

For  some  hundred  yards  these  two  animals  followed  the  margin 
of  the  lake,  and  I  began  to  fear  they  would  take  to  it ;  but  pres- 
ently we  found  the  trail  run  off  toward  the  mountain,  and  I  was 


584  JOURNEY    ROUND    THE  WORLD. 

sure  now  to  come,  at  least,  in  sight  of  a  rhinoceros.  But,  bless 
my  heart !  how  these  two  fellows  traveled  up  and  down  the  slopes ; 
crossing  cut-up  gullies,  sometimes  fifteen  feet  deep,  by  breaking 
down  the  soft  clayey  banks,  and  following  the  water-course,  till 
they  came  to  a  place  where  they  could  leave  it  again.  The  far- 
ther we  came  up  on  the  hill,  the  more  thick  and  wild  the  vegeta- 
tion became  ;  and  sometimes  I  crossed  places  we  would  not  have 
been  able  to  pass,  had  not  a  rhinoceros  broken  the  path  for  us. 
Losing  the  track  would  have  been  impossible — unless  we  chose 
to  leave  it. 

We  followed  so  long,  that  Peter  at  last  got  tired,  and  assured 
me  it  was  useless  to  proceed  any  further,  we  could  not  come  up 
with  the  animal ;  but  I  told  him  if  he  thought  so,  to  stop  where 
he  was,  and  I  would  go  by  myself — if  he  heard  me  shoot  he  could 
easily  come  up.  But  he  was  rather  ashamed  to  do  this,  I  think, 
and  after  consulting  a  few  seconds  with  the  Sunda  man,  while 
I  went  on,  not  to  lose  time,  I  heard  them  coming  after  me — Peter 
groaning  as  loud  as  he  could,  evidently  greatly  dissatisfied  with 
the  chase. 

The  vegetation  here  was  really  magnificent,  but  I  had  no  time 
now  to  look  at  it,  or  spend  a  second  in  any  thing  but  the  chase — 
the  vegetation  did  not  run  away,  but  the  rhinoceros  did ;  and  so 
passing  beauties  many  a  botanist  would  give  his  little  finger  only 
to  see,  I  pushed  on,  heedless  over  what  ground  the  animals  went, 
and  only  once  in  awhile  taking  notice  in  which  direction  we  pro- 
ceeded, so  that  if  I  should  lose  my  companions,  I  might  not  lose 
myself. 

I  had  followed  the  two  monsters  for  about  an  hour  or  more, 
with  not  a  dry  thread  upon  me ;  when  reaching  a  little  knob, 
right  in  the  midst  of  one  of  the  most  powerful  thickets,  I  volun- 
tarily grasped  my  gun — not  twelve  yards  distant  before  me,  I 
heard  a  sharp  and  loud  sounding  noise  resembling  the  sound  a 
frightened  stag  gives  in  the  woods,  only  far,  far  louder,  more  like 
the  escape-pipe  of  a  steamboat.  While  watching  the  track,  I  had 
not  looked  upon  the  bushes ;  and  there,  so  close  before  me,  that 
I  could  have  thrown  my  cap  upon  the  huge  mass  of  flesh,  I  recog- 
nized— only  half  hid  in  the  thick  and  drooping  foliage  of  the 
bushes — the  immense  dark  body  of  one  of  the  old  fellows  I  had 
been  after  since  yesterday.  I  could  just  distinguish  the  outlines 
of  the  huge  bulk  of  this  rhinoceros  when  seeing  his  head  turned 


HUNTING  IN  JAVA,  585 

toward  me,  as  if  to  make  out  what  little,  creature  had  been  dar- 
ing enough  to  follow  him  to  his  mountain  fastness,  I  raised  my 
gun  and  pulled  trigger. 

So  much  for  percussion  caps  in  wet  weather,  which  have  not 
a  little  copper-plate  over  the  white  substance  inside — snap,  said 
the  right,  snap  said  the  left  barrel,  as  the  cocks  struck  without 
igniting  the  caps ;  and  nearly  at  the  same  moment,  Peter's  gun 
— a  double-barreled  fowling-piece — at  some  distance  behind  me 
in  the  bushes,  went  off  by  itself,  I  expect,  for  I  heard  the  ball 
strike  a  tree  close  by  rather  high.  The  rhinoceros,  hearing  the 
strange  clicking  sounds,  and  the  crack  of  the  gun,  blew  as  if  with 
a  trumpet,  and  commenced  stamping  the  underwood  down  under 
its  feet. 

I  looked  round  quickly  for  a  tree — for  I  did  not  expect  any 
thing  else,  after  the  dreadful  tales  they  had  told  me  about  the 
animal,  but  to  see  it  come  rushing  upon  me — to  stamp  me  under 
foot — observing  one  about  ten  yards  distant,  I  thought  I  would 
reach  it,  and  await  the  result.  But  the  monster  came  not ;  he 
seemed  intent  only  on  amusing  itself  with  smashing  the  bushes 
as  if  clearing  out  an  improvement  for  himself. 

My  first  thought  was  to  clean  the  tubes  and  have  another  aim 
at  the  animal,  but  remembering  that  one  barrel  of  Peter's  gun 
was  still  loaded,  I  looked  around  to  make  him  come  up  to  me. 
But  where  was  Peter,  or  his  companion  ?  Taking  the  alarm,  I 
think,  as  soon  as  the  rhinoceros  began  to  rear  and  tear,  they  had 
fled  to  some  place  of  security.  I  had  no  choice  but  to  take  out 
my  turnscrew,  in  sight  of  the  enemy,  and  use  it — always  ready, 
though,  at  a  second's  warning,  to  fly  to  the  nearest  tree,  should 
the  animal  make  a  motion  to  have  a  stamp  at  me.  But  the 
rhinoceros,  apparently  far  too  peaceable  a  customer  to  have  any 
such  ideas,  gave  me  a  last  look,  and  dashing  again  into  the 
bushes,  soon  disappeared,  leaving  me  pricking  away  at  my  tubes, 
raving  mad,  to  get  them  open  again,  so  as  to  be  able  to  pour  in 
some  fresh  dry  powder.  I  did  it  as  fast  as  I  could,  of  course  ; 
but  it  took  me  at  least  five  minutes  ;  and  now  nothing  was  left 
me  but  to  push  on  after  the  flying  game. 

There  were  two  of  them,  and  they  seemed  to  choose  nearly  im- 
passable thickets,  breaking  down  old  logs  and  trunks  like  reeds. 
Away  we  went,  through  branches  and  sloughs — I  following  in  a 
monstrous  rags  at  not  being  able  to  come  up  with  them  ;  the 

BB* 


586  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

giant  beasts,  just  rolling  along,  as  it  seemed  at  their  common 
pace  to  get  out  of  harm's  way.  Several  times  I  was  near  enough 
to  hear  them  blow,  when  they  got  the  wind  of  rne,  but  I  never 
halted  a  minute  to  ascertain  their  exact  direction,  as  I  had  only 
to  keep  the  trail,  rush  down  the  slope,  and  storm  them  up.  All 
my  efforts  were  in  vain — the  ground  was  so  rough  I  could  not 
get  nearer,  at  least  not  in  sight  of  them  ;  and  only  by  following 
down  hill,  as  it  seemed,  upon  reaching  a  little  more  open  wood, 
I  gained  on  them  just  enough  to  come  in  sight  of  the  black  hide 
of  the  hindmost. 

I  had  heard  that  they  rushed  invariably  upon  the  hunter  if  they 
were  wounded ;  but  riot  in  a  humor  just  then  to  consider  what 
they  might  do,  after  I  had  shot,  I  raised  my  gun  at  the  first 
chance,  knowing  that  the  next  moment  would  bury  them  behind 
the  thick  curtain  of  the  bushes ;  and  pulling  trigger,  this  time  at 
least  I  could  hear  the  ball  strike  the  black  hide,  penetrating  it  of 
course,  as  I  shot  pointed  slug  balls,  which  go  through  nearly  any 
thing. 

Holding  back  the  second  barrel — for  I  really  did  think  the 
wounded  and  enraged  animal  would  come  and  call  for  it — I 
stopped  a  moment ;  but  no — it  never  thought  of  turning  round, 
and  simultaneously  with  the  shot,  I  heard  the  two  animals  break- 
ing through  the  bushes  like  a  small  hurricane.  This  did  not  last 
long — I  heard  a  heavy  splash  in  the  water  ;  and,  a  hundred  yards 
farther,  I  stood  on  the  margin  of  the  lake  I  had  started  from. 

To  follow  into  that  was  out  of  the  question,  even  if  I  had  not 
been  entirely  knocked  up.  I  listened  awhile,  and  could  hear  the 
heavy  animals  in  the  water ;  but  the  reeds  were  too  thick  to 
allow  a  look  ;  and  after  a  while,  all  was  quiet  again.  Whether 
they  had  gone  out  on  the  other  side,  which,  I  think,  was  most 
probable,  or  had  retreated  to  some  shallow  spot  in  the  reed-bed, 
I  know  not.  When  every  thing  was  quiet,  I  threw  myself  down 
in  the  tracks  of  the  beasts,  wet  as  I  was,  to  take  breath  again, 
and  rest  a  few  minutes. 

A  full  hour  I  think  I  had  lain  there,  before  my  guide  Peter 
came  up,  with  the  Sunda  man,  and  catching  sight  of  my  figure 
on  the  ground,  he  stopped  at  first  suddenly  ;  but  finding  me  look- 
ing at  him  and  laughing,  he  rushed  up,  expressing  in  the  most 
lively  acclamations  and  gesticulations  his  joy  to  find  me  alive  and 
well.  It  was  useless  to  assure  him  I  had  not  been  in  the  least 


HUNTING  IN  JAVA.  587 

danger,  the  rhinoceros  having  been  even  more  frightened  than 
himself — or  at  least  just  as  much — he  shook  his  head  significantly, 
and  remarked  that  I  owed  all  to  my  good  fortune,  and  his  not 
having  lost  his  presence  of  mind  in  that  deciding  moment ;  for 
his  firing  off  his  gun  at  the  animal  had  frightened  it  away  from 
me,  which  had  he  not  done,  the  monster  would  have  thrown 
itself  upon  me,  and  most  decidedly  my  life  would  not  have  been 
worth,  in  such  a  case,  so  much  as  a  doit. 

The  rascal,  after  having  discharged  his  gun  so  as  to  endanger 
my  life,  and  that  from  behind  the  hill  where  he  could  not  even 
see  the  rhinoceros,  was  now  ready  to  sware  that  he  had  saved 
it  with  that  random  shot. 

But  as  it  was  of  no  use  to  stay  longer  up  here  in  the  mountains, 
as  the  rain-clouds  were  beginning  to  wet  every  thing — even  my 
powder — I  determined  to  give  up  the  chase  as  a  bad  job. 

Our  path  lay  again  round  that  lake,  and  I  had  time  enough  now 
to  notice  the  extraordinary  vegetation  of  these  mountains ;  ex- 
ceeding even  the  hot  and  sultry  swamps  of  the  Mississippi  and 
Red  River.  There  was  not  a  single  spot  to  be  seen,  from  the 
ground  we  trod,  up  to  the  highest  top  of  the  trees,  uncovered  by 
some  vine  or  moss ;  the  latter  in  particular,  close  to  the  lake, 
and  in  some  parts  of  the  bottom,  appeared  in  perfectly  palm-tree 
forms,  in  miniature.  The  little  moss  stems  rose  some  four  or  five 
inches  high,  in  straight,  completely  naked,  wooden  stems,  spread- 
ing out  at  the  top  their  moss  leaves  as  beautifully  as  the  fern- 
palms,  arid  looking,  with  the  mossy  underwood,  like  little  fair 
forests.  Those  air  plants,  also,  growing  upon  the  trunks  and 
branches  of  other  trees,  appeared  in  inconceivable  beauty  and 
magnificence  all  around.  In  large  clusters  their  strange-looking 
flowers  were  hanging  down  from  the  different  trunks,  their  broad, 
grassy  blades  sometimes  rising  from  the  bend  of  a  tree,  straight 
up,  and  giving  it  the  appearance  of  some  singular-shaped  palm 
tree,  with  its  feathery  crown  and  foliage-covered  limbs,  striking 
out  to  the  right  and  left. 

From  some  such  plants,  perfect  bunches  of  flowers,  in  the 
brightest  red  and  yellow  colors,  were  swinging  down ;  on  others, 
single  blue  and  grayish  blossoms  were  hanging  with  a  large  pur- 
ple spot,  like  sparkling  beads ;  and  wild  vines  were  stretching 
over  their  living  and  flower-decked  arms  from  one  tree  to  another, 
hanging  down  here  in  large  garlands  and  festoons,  or  climbing 


588  JOURNEY    ROUND   THE  WORLD. 

up  there  to  the  highest  top  of  a  tree,  to  twine  itself  around  it  like 
a  crown.  Not  one  single  spot  was  uncovered,  or  bare,  except 
where  a  rhinoceros  had  put  its  foot,  stamping  every  thing  down 
before  it ;  not  only  crushing  the  plants  or*  smaller  bushes,  but 
burying  them  into  the  ground. 

That  afternoon  late.  1  reached  Lembang,  to  start  next  morning 
to  the  lower  lands  of  Bandong. 

Mr.  Philippeau  had  bought  a  grown  tiger  lately  from  the  na- 
tives, who  had  caught  it  in  a  trap,  and  kept  it  in  a  small  wooden 
cage  ;  but  the  animal  becoming  so  unruly,  and  the  cage  being 
not  over  strong,  he  feared  it  might  break  out  some  night,  and 
wished  to  shoot  it.  The  caged  beast  was  at  the  same  time  ex- 
tremely wild  and  restless,  particularly  at  night,  roaring  and  howl- 
ing, so  as  to  make  it  almost  impossible  to  reach  the  place  after 
dark  in  a  carriage,  as  the  horses  refused  to  go  near  the  place. 
So  this  morning  was  to  see  its  execution,  and  the  natives  collected 
around  in  large  numbers,  to  witness  the  sport.  But  when  the 
shot  was  fired,  and  we  went  to  open  the  cage,  they  all  broke  in 
different  directions,  for  fear  the  thing  might  be  alive — my  hero 
Peter  being  one  of  the  first. 

Peter  was,  in  fact,  a  character  :  after  having  come  in,  extremely 
vexed  with  my  refusal  to  travel  with  a  parcel  of  lazy  and  good- 
for-nothing  natives  in  my  wake  all  the  time,  and  having  gal- 
loped by  myself  back  to  Lembang,  not  wanting  a  man  even  to 
show  me  the  way  ;  he  next  morning  gave  Mr.  Philippeau  an 
exact  account  of  our  hunting  expedition,  complaining  how  fool- 
ishly and  carelessly  I  had  exposed  my  body  to  the  rage  of  the 
animal,  and  how  he,  just  at  the  decisive  moment  had  saved  my 
life  ;  he  concluded  by  asking  for  one  roopiah. 

It  was  not  dear,  it  is  true,  but  he  did  not  get  even  that  for  such 
a  service — ungrateful  world  as  it  is ! 

While  writing  this,  I  have  received  a  letter  from  Batavia  prov- 
ing the  rhinoceros  to  be  not  always  such  a  quiet  animal.  A  friend 
of  mine  there  says,  dating  from  the  28th  of  November,  1852,  just 
a  year  after  iny  hunt :  "  Speaking  of  Bandong,  I  must  let  you 
know  what  has  happened  lately  with  a  rhinoceros,  to  show  you 
what  could  have  been  your  fate  here.  A  company  of  Batavian 
hunters  had  found  the  tracks  of  a  rhinoceros,  and  determined  to 
drive  the  animal.  A  macador,  one  of  the  small  native  chiefs, 
asked  permission  to  be  present  at  the  hunt ;  and  the  rhinoceros 


HUNTING  IN  JAVA.  589 

coming  out  just  where  he  stood,  frightened  him  so,  that  he  did 
not  dare  to  shoot.  The  monster  running  up  to  him,  wounded 
him  so  badjy,  that  he  died  a  few  hours  after,  and  badly  hurt 
another  native  also.  The  enraged  animal  attacked  next  day  an 
aren-palm,  the  tree  from  which  the  sugar  is  taken,  in  which  a 
native  was  sitting  to  get  his  palm  wine.  The  man,  frightened, 
threw  down  the  small  fruit  of  the  palm  upon  the  animal,  irritat- 
ing it  still  more ;  and  there  is  no  doubt  it  would  have  rooted  up 
the  tree  had  not  the  Javanese  thrown  down  one  of  those  im- 
mense fruit-grapes  of  the  aren,  which,  falling  upon  the  rhinoceros, 
he  appeared  to  think  it  was  the  man,  for  he  stamped  the  bunch 
under  his  foot,  tore  it  to  pieces,  and  passed  on.  But  even  on  the 
next  day  a  third  fell  a  sacrifice  to  individual  rage,  being  literally 
torn  to  pieces,  and  at  last  crushed  under  his  feet." 

While  I  was  opening  the  tiger's  hide,  to  strip  him  of  it,  the 
natives  came  cautiously  nearer,  and  Peter  asked  me  to  cut  the 
animal  open,  and  let  him  have  the  heart — he  did  not  want  it  for 
himself,  he  said,  only  for  some  of  his  friends  ;  arid  as  there  was 
nothing  to  be  done  with  the  meat  or  heart  either,  I  cut  the  tiger 
open,  and  offered  him  the  wished-for  piece,  But,  bless  me,  how 
eagerly  they  all  grasped  at  it !  There  was  nearly  a  fight  about 
that  little  piece  of  meat ;  and  Peter  never  would  have  brought  a 
bit  of  it  away,  had  he  not  offered  to  divide  it.  Cutting  half  of  it 
into  small  pieces,  he  gave  most  of  the  by-standers  one,  and  dis- 
appeared with  the  remainder.  As  I  heard  then,  there  is  a  super- 
stition connected  with  the  heart  of  the  tiger,  making  those  who 
eat  of  it,  as  fearless  and  courageous  as  the  animal  is  said  to  be. 
That  being  really  the  case,  Peter  was  perfectly  right  to  take  half 
of  the  heart,  for  himself,  for  he  needed  it  badly. 

They  say  the  best  cages  for  tigers  are  made  of  the  wood  of  the 
aren  palm-tree,  as  it  breaks  off  in  splints  as  soon  as  the  animal 
takes  hold  of  it  with  its  teeth,  and  sticks  into  its  mouth. 

The  same  morning,  the  Assistant-resident  of  Bandong,  with  the 
Regent,  was  going  to  pass  here,  returning  from  an  official  visit 
to  some  of  the  neighboring  districts.  With  them  I  had  a  very 
good  chance  of  returning  to  Bandong ;  so  packing  up  my  things, 
I  was  soon  ready,  and  taking  leave  of  Mr.  Philippeau,  who  had 
received  me  with  unbounded  hospitality,  and  with  whom  I  had 
passed  a  very  pleasant  time,  I  started  in  the  most  wonderful 
train  I  had  ever  formed  part  of  in  my  life. 


590  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE    WORLD. 

The  Resident,  as  well  as  the  Regent,  never  goes  upon  any  jour- 
ney without  having  a  train  of  followers — the  latter,  commonly, 
a  very  large  one — and  now  being  both  together,  they  had  a  per- 
fect crowd  of  such  customers  ;  I  never  saw  a>  more  motley  group 
of  courtiers  in  my  life  than  those  mounted  gentlemen  of  honor. 

In  India  it  seems  people  judge  their  superiors,  or  men  in  gen- 
eral— for  every  native  does  the  same  if  he  gets  a  chance — by  the 
swarm  of  useless  people  he.  carries  with  him.  We  find  similar 
traits  in  Scottish  history,  and  have  a  faint  likeness  to  it  in  the 
orders  and  titles  of  Germany  and  France  ;  but  I  had  never  before 
seen  such  a  motley  swarm  as  collected  round  our  carriage  when 
we  started.  Some  of  them  were  in  sarongs  and  jackets,  some 
had  only  their  headkerchiefs  on ;  some  wore  a  cap,  I  shall  never 
forget,  but  do  not  know  how  to  describe ;  it  looked  very  much 
like  a  kind  that  had  been  fashionable  about  fifteen  or  twenty 
years  ago  in  our  country — with  a  very  round  and  high  head, 
consisting  of  eight  parts  sewed  with  a  thick  seam,  and  a  flat 
button  on  the  top,  and  guarded  in  the  front  by  a  very  large 
screen,  which  stuck  straight  out  in  front  about  ten  inches.  They 
had  this  cap  pushed  back,  so  that  the  screen  was  sometimes 
standing  perpendicular,  which  made  them  look  extremely  funny. 

At  a  short  distance  from  Lembang  the  train,  madly  dashing 
on,  came  to  the  edge  of  the  mountain,  which  slopes  off  here  into 
the  valley  rather 'steep,  and  I  thought  they  would  come  directly 
to  a  dead  halt,  and  go  slower — but  no  such  thing.  From  both 
sides  of  the  road  dark  figures  rose  up  I  had  not  noticed  till  then ; 
and  trailing  a  large  and  strong  rope  behind  them,  they  fastened, 
while  the  carriage  was  going  at  full  speed,  the  end  of  this  behind, 
and  clinging  to  it,  all  at  once,  went  dragged  down  the  hill — 
throwing  their  legs  all  the  while  as  if  they  were  going  to  shake 
them  off,  but  stopping  the  progress  of  the  carriage  materially. 
We  had  run  about  a  mile  with  this  living  tail,  when  we  ap- 
proached some  bamboo  huts,  where  another  gang  of  natives 
came,  cowering,  half-crawling  toward  the  wagon,  as  if  they  were 
going  to  stop  the  horses.  And  sure  enough,  when  we  came  near 
they  made  a  rush  at  the  carriage,  just  as  if  they  were  going  to 
enter  it ;  but  their  aim  being  only  the  rope  behind,  the  next 
minute  they  hung  on,  relieving  the  first  gang,  which  let  go,  and 
went  sneaking  away  in  deepest  devotion,  half  prostrate,  and  even 
in  that  attitude  dodging  the  horses  of  our  retinue. 


HUNTING  IN  JAVA.  591 

But  the  most  extraordinary  specimens  of  our  whole  troup  were 
two  horsemen,  that  took,  as  it  seemed,  the  lead,  keeping  a  good 
way  ahead,  and  warning,  most  probably,  the  population  of  what 
was  coming,  that  they  might  get  in  time  upon  their  marrow 
bones.  These  were  two  native  hussars,  in  red  uniforms,  with 
yellow  facings  and  lace,  but  in  every  other  respect  as  wild  and 
dangerous-looking  as  the  rest.  Their  uniforms  were  of  the 
coarsest  red  woolen  stuff,  with  ornaments  of  light  yellow  wool ; 
the  dress,  too,  was  rather  the  worse  for  wear,  the  starboard  one 
being  out  at  his  larboard  elbow.  They  were  bare-footed,  of 
course  ;  not  with  the  kerchief  upon  their  heads,  but  wearing  the 
high  shakko,  commonly  worn  by  hussars,  with  a  bunch  of  red- 
colored  horse-hair  hanging  down  in  front.  In  their  hands  they 
bore  a  long  unwieldy  instrument — I  thought  a  lance  at  first,  but 
soon  found  out  that  it  was  a  state  umbrella,  with  a  long,  silver- 
mounted  handle  ;  the  whole  being  about  eight  or  ten  feet  high. 
These  two  were  taking  the  lead,  the  carriage  following,  while 
the  mounted  swarm  of  all  colors  of  horses  and  faces,  with  the 
long  tail  of  natives  at  the  rope  behind,  came  rushing  after. 

As  soon  as  we  reached  the  low  and  flat  country,  where  it  was 
no  more  necessary  to  hold  back  the  carriage,  they  unfastened  the 
rope,  and  squatting  down  on  their  haunches,  right  in  the  middle 
of  the  road,  let  the  horsemen  pass  on  both  sides  of  them.  A  few 
minutes  afterward  they  were  out  of  sight ;  but  to  my  utter  as- 
tonishment I  saw  two  more  hussars  in  front,  exactly,  to  the 
smallest  details  (even,  it  is  astonishing  to  relate,  to  the  hole  in 
the  elbow  of  one),  the  same  as  the  former — only,  the  color  was 
green,  with  red  facings  and  lace,  this  time.  Where  they  had 
come  from,  I  did  not  know,  but  there  they  were,  and  on  we 
madly  rushed,  down  into  the  Valley  of  Bandong. 

The  scenery  here  was  magnificent ;  from  the  very  top  of  the 
mountain,  rice-fields  commenced,  and  the  little  bamboo  habita- 
tions showed  at  least  the  banana  or  pisang,  and  the  shaddok  ; 
farther  down  the  more  tropical  fruits  commenced  again  ;  and  on 
approaching  the  plain,  the  stately  cocoa-nut  trees  rose  above  the 
low  cozy  huts,  shaking  their  dew  upon  the  roof. 

My  time  was  too  short  to  stay  long  in  this  beautiful  spot, 
though  I  was  invited  nearly  by  every  planter  there  to  see  his 
plantation ;  each  treating  me  with  as  much  kindness  as  if  I  had 
been  a  near  and  long-expected  relation  ;  not  a  mere  stranger, 


592  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

dropping  as  from  the  clouds  upon  their  fair  island ;  in  particular, 
Mr.  Visher,  the  Assistant-resident,  nearly  made  me  forget  that  I 
was  not  at  home. 

In  fact,  my  short  stay  in  Java  I  could  hardly  call  a  journey ; 
all  my  hardships,  all  my  privations  were  over,  and  my  rambles 
amidst  that  beautiful  scenery,  enjoying  a  life  so  luxurious,  seemed 
more  a  pleasure  trip  than  any  thing  else. 

I  reached  Batavia  again  without  any  accidents,  visiting  only 
a  small  lake  nearly  upon  the  highest  ridge  of  the  Megamendong 
— an  old  crater,  now  filled  with  water,  which  was  hid  up  in  a 
perfect  wilderness  of  flowers,  fern-palms,  and  the  large  beautiful 
foliage  of  these  regions.  But  I  have  no  room  left  for  a  descrip- 
tion of  all  the  beauties  I  saw ;  scene  so  crowded  upon  scene,  I 
should  want  volumes  to  give  a  minute  description  of  those  vege- 
table riches. 

In  Lembang  I  had  met  an  English  gentleman,  a  painter,  who 
had  come  over  here  from  Bengal,  and  was  returning  very  sick 
from  a  tour  over  the  mountains.  He  could  not  bear  to  ride  in  a 
carriage,  and  had  natives  to  carry  him.  I  overtook  him  in 
Tjanjor  Hotel,  and  was  sorry  to  find  in  him  another  specimen 
of  those  Englishmen  who  travel  in  the -world  with  a  pocket  full 
of  money,  but  not  the  least  knowledge  of  any  language  but  their 
own.  This  traveler  had  a  Bengal  servant  with  him,  who  could 
make  out  what  he  spoke  in  English,  with  a  few  Bengal  words ; 
except  that,  the  Englishman  spoke  neither  French,  nor  Dutch, 
nor  German,  nor  in  fact  any  thing  else  but  his  mother  tongue ; 
while  his  Bengal  servant  could  not  get  along  with  the  Sunda, 
nor  even  the  Java  Malay.  And  with  this  the  man  was  ill,  ex- 
posing himself,  without  being  able  to  make  his  wishes  or  neces- 
sities known,  even  in  this  most  hospitable  land,  to  the  dangers 
of  a  perfect  wilderness. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

LIFE    IN    BATAVIA. 

IF  the  reader  expects  here  a  description  of  the  high  or  only 
common  European  life  in  Batavia,  he  will  be  disappointed  ;  the 
life  the  Europeans  lead  in  the  colonies,  in  luxury  and  comfort,  has 
been  described  too  often  already,  and  by  far  more  able  pens  than 
mine  ;  so  I  shall  say  no  more  on  the  subject  than  is  unavoidably 
necessary.  On  the  life  of  the  people  I  should  like  to  say  a  few 
words  ;  and  I  know  that  there  will  be  many  things  interesting  to 
relate. 

When  I  returned  to  Batavia,  I  was  received  in  Mr.  Kinder's 
house  as  one  belonging  to  the  family,  and  had  now  leisure  to  look 
about  me,  and  see  as  much  of  Batavia  as  the  short  time  of  my 
stay  would  admit.  I  had  decided  to  go  back  to  Germany  from 
here,  in  a  vessel  bound  round  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  had 
several  weeks'  time,  before  it  started. 

I  also  got  introduced  to  a  small  earthquake,  while  I  remained 
upon  tropical  soil.  On  the  9th  of  January,  while  there  was  a 
festivity — a  ball — preparing  at  Mr.  Kinder's  house,  about  five 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  the  ground  trembled,  the  glasses  upon 
the  tables  knocked  together,  and  the  lamps  in  the  different  rooms 
commenced  swinging  from  east  to  west ;  a  second  shake,  strong- 
er than  the  first,  followed  a  few  seconds  after,  and  then  a  third, 
but  very  weak — and  the  thing  was  over ;  but  the  natives  be- 
haved so  singularly,  that  I  could  not  help  inquiring  what  was  the 
matter. 

As  soon  as  they  felt  the  first  shock,  they  all  broke  out  of  their 
houses,  and  many  of  them,  throwing  themselves  upon  the  ground, 
cried  "  Lenoo  !  Lenoo  !"  as  hard  and  as  loud  as  they  could.  The 
Javanese  have  an  old  tradition,  according  to  which  in  the  inte- 
rior of  the  earth — that  is  in  Java — an  immense  animal,  Lenoo, 
is  sound  asleep,  or  at  least  lying  as  quietly  as  possible  :  if  that 
monster  rises,  the  earth  will  shake,  burst  and  be  destroyed  ;  but 


594  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

it  dare  not  do  so  till  the  last  of  the  human  race  upon  the  island  is 
dead — then  the  Lenoo  rises,  and  all  other  things  tumble  down. 

Now  there  are  two  distinct  kinds  of  ants  upon  the  island,  black 
and  white  ants :  the  white  destroy  every  thing  they  come  across, 
eating  through  what  they  find,  be  it  what  it  may,  and  few  things 
can  stop  them  ;  while  the  black  ant  is  perfectly  harmless,  and 
is  such  an  enemy  of  the  white,  that  where  they  are,  the  others 
dare  not  show  their  faces.  But  the  black  ants  want  to  be  re- 
spected on  this  account,  and  not  be  destroyed,  as  if  they  were 
doing  harm.  No  native,  therefore,  will  hurt  them  ;  but  if  any 
person,  in  spite  of  this,  should  maliciously  destroy  one,  the  black 
ant  not  unfrequently  seeks  revenge,  and  the  consequence  most 
commonly  is,  an  earthquake.  The  cunning  dead  ant  goes  down 
directly  to  the  Lenoo,  and  telling  the  monster  every  thing  was 
dead  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  expects  nothing  less  than  the  im- 
mediate destruction  of  the  world.  The  Lenoo  though,  being  a 
careful  animal,  only  bristles  up  a  few  hairs  first,  to  see  if  every 
thing  is  right,  and  shaking  the  ground  above  listens.  "  Lenoo  ! 
Lenoo  !"  the  Javanese  then  halloo,  as  soon  as  they  feel  the  mo- 
tion and  suspect  the  cause — to  make  their  existence  known  to  it; 
and  the  Lenoo,  finding  every  thing  is  not  dead  above,  smoothes 
down  its  hair,  and  sleeps  on  ;  and  the  black  ant,  seeing  its 
deadly  scheme  has  not  succeeded,  sneaks  off,  and  is  ashamed  of 
itself. 

The  Javanese  have  a  good  many  such  traditions  ;  traveling 
through  the  interior  in  particular,  you  see  nearly  before  every 
hut  one  or  two,  sometimes  more,  bamboo  cages,  containing  the 
common  small  pigeons.  These  birds  are  said  to  become  very 
old,  and  descend  from  family  to  family,  in  the  belief  that  they  lay 
diamond  eggs,  when  they  attain  one  hundred  years  of  age.  They 
purchase  some  of  these  birds  that  are  known  to  have  arrived  at 
an  advanced  age,  sometimes  with,  for  their  circumstances,  enor- 
mous sums,  if  the  owners  can  be  persuaded  by  such  a  temptation 
to  part  with  them. 

Taking  a  walk  one  day  through  the  Chinese  quarters — and  I 
liked  to  be  there,  for  I  saw  and  learned  more  in  that  crowded 
and  busy  place  than  any  where  else — I  met  an  old  wrinkled  fel- 
low, in  a  rather  fantastic  dress,  with  a  large  book,  or  a  kind  of 
rolled  mat  under  one  arm,  and  a  little  birdcage,  with  two  rice- 
birds,  called  "  inseparables,"  in  the  other,  while  that  hand,  the 


LIFE  IN  BATAVIA.  595 

• 

arm  of  which  carried  the  book,  held  open  one  of  the  common 
paper  umbrellas.  He  was  nodding  to  the  shopkeepers  around, 
all  of  whom  seemed  to  know  him  ;  and  rolling  through  the 
street,  striving  to  get  his  fat  body  along  in  the  most  commodious 
manner,  yet  looking  about  him  searchingly,  out  of  his  small  gray 
and  lively — ay,  cunning  eyes.  He  wore  a  small  black  cap,  with 
a  black  button  upon  it,  and  a  tremendous  tail  swinging  down  be- 
hind. A  brown-red  over-jacket,  and  light  blue  and  very  wide 
pantaloons  covered  his  outer  man,  and  an  enormous  pair  of  shoes 
were  upon  his  feet.  Just  when  he  had  passed  me,  he  sat  down 
upon  a  pile  of  lumber,  lying  there,  and  a  crowd  soon  collecting 
about  him,  he  put  his  book  beside  him,  and  the  cage  on  the  top 
of  it.  The  two  little  birds  in  it  seemed  very  hungry  ;  they  were 
fluttering  about  unceasingly,  and  had  only  some  water  in  their 
cage,  but  not  a  grain  of  any  thing  to  feed  upon.  He  had  not  sat 
there  one  minute,  when  a  young  woman  pressing  through  the 
crowd,  to  which  I  now  also  belonged,  asked  him  something  in 
the  Malay  language  I  did  not  understand.  She  most  certainly 
came  from  the  mountains,  having  the  sarong  tied  round  her 
hips — not  over  the  breasts,  as  the  women  of  the  lower  lands, 
in  a  very  ungainly  fashion,  have  it — and  another  cloth  thrown 
loosely  over  her  left  shoulder. 

The  old  fellow,  after  listening  to  her  words,  sat  ruminating  a 
good  while  upon  the  wood,  with  his  finger  upon  his  nose,  and 
looking  steadily  down.  The  crowd  around  moved  not,  you  could 
have  heard  a  pin  drop,  and  the  eyes  of  the  young  woman  glisten- 
ed in  painful  expectation.  Only  a  couple  of  young  Chinese — 
careless  young  dogs,  who  do  not  believe  in  any  thing,  neither 
upon  nor  above  the  earth — grinned  at  each  other,  and  shook  their 
tails.  At  last,  the  "wise  man"  took  the  book  or  case  upon  his 
lap,  and,  after  pulling  out  of  it  a  quantity  of  pieces  of  pasteboard, 
with  a  colored  drawing  upon  one  side,  he  opened  slowly  one  part 
of  the  cage  (this  having  a  partition  in  the  middle,  dividing  the 
whole  cage  in  two  equal  halves),  and  one  bird  came  quickly  out. 
Spreading  out  the  cards,  upon  which  the  well-taught  little  creat- 
ure jumped ;  the  old  man  spoke  a  few  words  to  it — I  believe 
in  Chinese — and  the  bird  caught  first  one  card  and  pulled  it  about 
half  up,  and  then  a  second  one  in  the  same  manner  ;  after  which 
exploit,  knowing  now  it  had  done  enough,  it  jumped  upon  its 
master's  hand. 


596  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

The  young  woman  was  standing,  in  the  mean  time,  in  full  and 
anxious  expectation  of  the  result ;  her  eyes  darting  from  the 
prophet  to  the  two  cards,  which  were  to  tell  her  the  fate  most 
likely  of  a  loved  person  ;  and  from  the  cards, again  to  the  eyes  of 
the  prophet,  who,  however,  seemed  not  in  the  least  to  think  of 
her,  but  speaking  a  few  friendly  words  to  the  bird,  fed  it  with 
some  grains  of  rice  ;  and  only  then,  putting  it  back  again  into 
its  cage,  took  up  the  ominous  cards  arid  turned  them  round. 

The  one  picture,  with  rather  coarse  colors,  represented  a  dark 
and  lonesome  part  of  some  thicket,  with  the  trunk  of  a  broken- 
down  cocoa-nut  tree  ;  the  other,  a  man  attacked  by  a  tiger.  The 
tiger,  standing  on  his  hind  legs,  opened  his  jaws  at  the  man, 
while  he  holding  the  creese,  ready  to  strike,  in  his  right  hand, 
stretched  out  his  left  elbow,  as  to  ward  off  with  it  the  rush  of 
his  furious  enemy. 

"  Matjan  !  matjan  !  kassiang  !"  the  by-standers  pitifully  ex- 
claimed ;  and  the  wise  man,  after  looking  a  good  while  at  the 
pictures,  pulled  an  old  and  much-used  book,  with  Chinese  char- 
acters, out  of  his  pocket,  and  commenced  turning  its  leaves, 
while  the  woman's  eyes  hung  in  speechless  fear  upon  his  lips. 
At  last  he  was  ready  to  translate  the  decision  of  fate  into  Malay  ; 
and  though  I  could  not  understand  what  he  said,  as  he  used  too 
many  words,  I  did  not  know,  there  was  no  doubt  that  his  pro- 
phesy had  been  a  fruitful  one  for  sorrow,  for  while  he  read,  many 
a  low  murmured  "  kassiang" — an  expression  of  the  deepest  pity 
with  the  natives,  and  really  not  to  be  translated  in  its  powerful 
and  heartfelt  meaning — parted  the  lips  of  the  multitude  around. 
The  woman  did  not  say  a  word — apparently  she  did  not  even 
breathe,  only  with  quick  'and  restless  hand  she  held  out  to  the 
Chinese — who  counted  the  pieces  carefully — a  handful  of  copper 
doits,  stepped  out  of  the  ring,  which  opened  willingly  for  her, 
and  disappeared  with  quick  steps,  a  few  seconds  afterward,  in 
one  of  the  numberless  by-streets ;  while  that  rascal  of  a  Chinese, 
who  had  filled  a  pure  and  true  heart  with  sorrow  and  pain,  out 
of  avarice  or  ambition,  took  up  his  traps  and  rolled,  with  a  fat 
benevolent  look  down  the  street  again. 

The  American  missionary  Bingham,  in  his  work  about  the 
Sandwich  Islands,  relates  in  a  ho]y  triumph  a  little  characteristic 
tale  of  how  a  native  of  the  Sandwich  group,  once  a  proud — and 
as  he  himself  thought — happy  heathen,  had  come  to  his  proper 


LIFE  IN  BATAVIA.  597 

senses  by  the  doctrines  of  the  white  Christians,  and  had  even 
preached  to  his  countrymen  in  full  contrition  and  despair  :  "  You 
have  heard  of  the  wickedness  of  the  Jews,  who  crucified  Christ. 
It  was  /  who  drove  the  nails  into  his  hands  and  feet !  It  was  / 
who  pierced  his  side  with  a  spear !  By  my  sins  I  have  consent- 
ed to  all  that  the  Jews  did  to  the  Messiah.  Formerly  I  thought 
that  I  was  as  good  as  others,  but  now  I  see  that  I  am  guilty  of 
violating  every  command  of  the  Decalogue.  I  am  ruined  by  my 
sins  ;  I  hope  for  mercy  only  in  Christ." 

I  shall  not  say  any  thing  further  upon  these  two  cases,  let  the 
reader  judge  for  himself;  but  my  first  thought  was  of  the  one, 
while  I  saw  the  other. 

Much  I  had  heard  of  the  "  evening  pasars,"  and  opium  smok- 
ing-places  of  the  town  ;  but  as  all  these  districts  lay  so  far  apart, 
and  one  has  to  take  a  carriage  on  purpose  to  go  there  and  back 
again,  I  had  not  seen  such  a  place,  till,  a  short  time  before  I  in- 
tended to  start,  I  determined  to  take  at  least  a  look  at  them. 
One  night  then,  with  several  of  rny  acquaintances,  and  two  cap- 
tains of  German  vessels,  we  went  out  to  Meester  Corneeles,  as  a 
whole  district — a  kind  of  suburb  of  Batavia — is  called,  having 
been  told  that  we  should  find  there  the  worst  of  such  places — a 
perfect  concentration  of  the  vilest  characters,  Malays  and  Chinese. 
So  there  we  went,  and  reaching  the  place  about  ten  o'clock  at 
night — this  life  only  commencing  about  nine  o'clock  in  its  full 
splendor — I  found  that  what  I  had  expected  at  first  to  be  a  large 
house  or  building,  called  Meester  Corneeles,  a  little  village  in 
itself,  formed  out  of  bamboo-huts  and  sheds,  with  a  large  pasar 
or  market  in  the  centre.  Here  a  quantity  of  fruit-stands  were 
set  up,  each  with  a  little  lamp  of  its  own,  burning  cocoa-nut  oil, 
and  with  a  banana  leaf  around  it  for  a  kind  of  screen,  where  were 
sold  all  kinds  of  fruit,  pine-apple  slices,  or  rambootans,  bananas, 
pieces  of  ngankas,  or  cocoa-nuts,  to  drink  ;  and  there  were  rice 
and  palm-sugar  juice,  cakes  and  sweetmeats  ;  while  the  dim 
flickering  lights,  darkened  by  the  broad  leaves  which  partly  sur- 
rounded them,  threw  a  wild  and  uncertain  light  over  the  groups 
which  were  standing  or  squatting  near  the  stands,  to  quench 
their  thirst  with  a  cocoa-nut,  or  take  their  frugal  supper  with  a 
handful  of  rice  and  some  ginger- water,  or  palm- sugar. 

Under  those  sheds  which — covered  with  a  matting  of  pan- 
danus  leaves — ran  in  three  or  four  rows  along  the  maiket,  and 


598  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

farther  toward  the  main  buildings  of  the  place,  little  one-story 
huts,  of  a  dirty  and  crazy  appearance,  were  standing,  and  there 
the  merry  life  of  the  pasar  commenced.  Four  or  five  gangs  of 
dancers,  principally  dancing-girls,  were  acting  here,  each  with  a 
separate  band  of  music  ;  gamelangs,  anklongs,  and  Chinese  two- 
stringed  violins  ;  and  each  with  a  large  lamp — out  of  which 
several  thick  wicks  were  blazing — swinging  in  the  middle  or 
fastened  to  one  of  the  main  wooden  pillars. 

The  girls,  dressed  up  in  the  same  manner  as  I  had  seen  and 
have  described  in  similar  dancers  while  going  up  to  Bandong, 
moved  along  in  their  slow,  and  sometimes  not  ungraceful  meas- 
ures, screaming  though  at  the  same  time,  and  opening  their  wide 
mouths,  blackened  inside  by  sirih-chewing,  in  a  most  disgusting 
and  dreadful  way. 

These  girls,  being  all  prostitutes,  have  their  domiciles  in  some  of 
the  bamboo-huts  of  the  market,  and  form  a  part  of  it.  But  I  want- 
ed to  see  the  opium  smoking  ;  and  here  I  found  myself  again  dis- 
appointed, for  instead  of  large  rooms,  I  had  expected  to  meet,  where 
the  smokers  should  lie  upon  their  stools  'or  settees,  waiting  for  the 
blissful  moment,  we  found  a  low.  dark,  dirty  hut,  with  a  wooden 
stool  and  a  large  bench,  the  latter  guarded  by  a  low  lattice,  or 
frame,  behind  which  some  Chinese  writing  materials  and  a  scale 
were  lying ;  while  several  Chinese  at  a  neighboring  table  were 
buying  the  already  divided  and  weighed  off  portions  of  opium,  or 
opium  and  tobacco,  rolled  up  in  a  banana-leaf.  The  quantity  of 
the  intoxicating  stuff  they  got  for  half  a  roopiah — I  believe  the 
price  of  a  "meal" — was  very  small ;  but  still  the  poorest  looking 
among  them  brought  their  few  doits,  having  worked  together  in 
the  sweat  of  their  brow,  to  buy  the  poison  and  ruin  themselves. 

Wishing  to  see  these  men  use  the  stuff,  with  which  they 
eagerly  disappeared,  as  soon  as  the  Chinese,  taking  care  to  have 
the  money  first,  had  delivered  it  to  them,  we  were  just  going  to 
leave  the  comptoir,  when  a  little  fellow,  an  old  wrinkled  up 
Javanese,  entered.  He  was  really  only  a  piece  of  a  man,  con- 
sisting of  nothing  but  skin  and  bones  ;  a  perfect  skeleton,  upon 
which  the  brown  hide  was  hanging,  with  his  eyes  deep  in  their 
sockets,  wildly  rolling  about,  and  restlessly  flying  from  one  to 
another.  He  wanted  to  have  some  more  opium,  but  not  having 
money  enough  for  the  regular  portion,  wished  to  get  less,  which 
the  seller  would  not  let  him  have.  The  poor  wretch  was  plainly 


LIFE  IN  BATAVIA.  599 

under  the  influence  of  the  poison  already ;  his  hands  trernhled, 
as  in  a  fever,  and  the  whole  figure  looked  far  more  like  a  corpse, 
come  out  of  its  grave  on  a  visit,  than  a  living  soul-gifted  creature. 
He  never  left  off  begging,  till  the  Chinese  gave  him  the  worth  of 
his  coppers  in  opium  ;  and  with  this  little  quantum  he  darted 
off,  in  greedy  joy,  back  to  his  haunt. 

We  followed  him,  two  doors  farther  to  a  narrow  kind  of  room, 
looking  more  like  a  small  entry,  where  some  bamboo-benches; , 
about  four  feet  wide,  nearly  filled  the  whole  space  ;  leaving  only 
about  twelve  or  fourteen  inches  more  for  a  gangway,  alongside 
the  dirty  wall.  Several  groups  of  opium  smokers  were  upon  this 
bench,  but  in  no  way  intoxicated  ;  gambling  at  cards,  and  sing- 
ing, and  chewing  their  sirih ;  every  now  and  then  filling  their 
opium  pipes  with  a  grain  of  the  stuff,  and  inhaling  it,  with  a 
single  whiff  or  two;  holding  in  the  smoke  afterward,  and  blow- 
ing it  out  again  slowly  through  their  noses. 

The  place  looked  as  dirty  and  uncomfortable  as  it  could  look  : 
the  walls  were  besmeared  with  all  kinds  of  colors  and  materials  ; 
the  benches  never  had  seen  water,  since  the  last  rain  washed 
them  as  bamboo,  in  the  woods  ;  and  the  guests  looked  half  in- 
toxicated by  the  subtle  poison — and  in  an  unnatural  merriment, 
which  was  fading  away,  finally  'into  a  kind  of  dreamy  stupor. 
They  were  passing  the  night  here  upon  these  benches  :  the  next 
morning  finding  them  just  able  to  reel  home,  and  prepare  their 
bodies,  by  a  sound  sleep,  for  new  work,  or — if  they  had  half  a 
roopiah  left — for  another  smoke. 

But  not  all  the  smokers  were  sitting  here  :  the  most  of  them 
we  found  in  the  bamboo-huts  scattered  about ;  each  of  which 
had  five,  six,  and  more  beds,  with  dirty  curtains,  a  mattress,  and 
two  pillows  ;  by  the  mattress  stood  a  "  dampat  sirih" — a  little 
bamboo  box,  to  keep  their  sirih  leaves,  areka-nuts,  lime,  and 
other  things  necessary  for  sirih  chewing,  with  a  small  lamp 
burning  for  the  opium  smokers.  The  sight  that  met  our  eyes 
here,  is  really  not  to  be  described. 

A  worse  place  than  this,  1  visited  one  night  with  a  German 
doctor,  upon  "  Pasar  snin"  (the  Monday's  market),  now  called 
"  Welteoreden,"  by  the  Dutch,  where  these  opium  caves  consisted 
of  one  very  large  building,  under  one  roof,  but  divided  into  innu- 
merable little  rooms,  hardly  larger  than  the  bed  that  was  stand- 
ing inside,  and  the  walls  only  made  out  of  bamboo  basket-work. 


600  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

Narrow,  dirty,  and  dark  alleys,  led  through  this  "  opium  palace" 
in  every  direction,  and  the  bamboo  walls  were  besmeared  every 
where  with  the  white  lime,  which  is  used  with  the  sirih ;  and 
you  could  easily  trace  the  fingers  which  had*  cleaned  themselves 
of  it,  on  the  posts  and  basket  partitions. 

I  spent  about  half  an  hour  in  this  place,  watching  the  smokers, 
and  the  wild  and  reckless  girls,  who  were  living  in  these  hells ; 
and  when  I  stepped  at  last,  out  of  the  hot  and  stifling  atmosphere, 
the  dark,  scantily  lit  alleys,  and  that  mass  of  vice  and  misery, 
and  saw  above  me  the  star-spangled  sky,  the  waving  and  rustling 
cocoa-palms,  while  the  sweet  scent  of  the  shaddok  blossoms,  filled 
the  air  with  perfume,  it  was  as  if  I  had  left  the  cells  of  a  dungeon, 
to  be  free,  and  that  first  breath  of  pure  air  I  drew  was  a  blessing. 
What  are  the  Five  Points  of  New  York,  or  the  Seven  Dials  of 
London,  compared  with  such  a  place  ? — they  could  never  surpass 
the  "  Pasar  snin"  of  Batavia. 

The  opium  trade  is  a  monopoly  of  government,  and  the  whole- 
sale and  retail  of  it  is  leased  out  at  an  enormous  sum.  The  way 
this  lease  is  given,  also,  has  a  peculiarity,  which  not  only  insures 
to  government  the  highest  profit  for  the  self-imported  opium,  but 
also  forces  the  contractor  to  sell  a  certain  quantity.  The  sale  is 
given  to  the  highest  bidder,  but  not  to  the  highest  bidder  of  the 
value  of  the  opium — for  the  value  is  always  put  upon  it  by  gov- 
ernment— but  the  highest  bidder  as  to  the  quantity  to  be  sold. 
Not  roopiahs,  but  boxes  of  opium  are  put  up  to  auction  ;  and  he 
who  offers  to  sell  the  most  boxes  of  the  stuff — which  quantity  he 
pays  the  government  for,  it  being  his  business  afterward  to  find 
buyers  again  for  it — gets  the  lease ;  and,  I  believe,  those  lease- 
holders for  opium  most  commonly  hold  the  gambling-tables. 

But  let  not  our  enlightened  and  civilized  European  states  shake 
their  heads  about  such  doings,  or  strike  their  breasts,  and  say  : 
"  Lord,  I  thank  Thee  that  I  am  not  as  other  people,"  as  long  as 
our  German  states  do  not  abolish  those  cursed  gambling-tables, 
and  penny  lotteries — the  Devil's  own  invention  to  ruin  our  poor, 
to  whom  is  held  out  a  chance  of  becoming  rich,  of  which  they 
have  not  sense  enough  to  see  the  remoteness  ;  as  long  as  England 
does  not  give  up  its  licensed  gin-houses,  or  ceases  to  take  opium 
to  China,  we  have  no  right  to  blame  the  Indian  government  for 
employing  such  ways  to  raise  an  income-tax.  If  people  here  do 
go  a  little  faster  to  the  dickens,  by  such  a  double  system  of  gam- 


LIFE  IN  BATAVIA.  601 

bling  and  opium  smoking,  why  it  is  a  tropical  climate,  and  not 
to  be  wondered  at. 

On  the  5th  of  January,  there  was  an  execution  of  a  Malay  sol- 
dier, who  was  going  to  be  hanged,  for  having  run  his  crees  through 
a  white  sergeant.  The  execution  was  to  take  place  in  the  morn- 
ing, about  seven  o'clock,  near  the  Waterloo  Place,  and  right  close 
under  the  walls  of  the  prison.  A  few  natives  and  Chinese  had 
collected,  and  while  the  soldiers  were  marching  up,  and  forming 
with  the  prison  walls  a  square  round  the  gibbet,  the  prisoner  was 
led  out  to  suffer  death. 

The  man  had  a  short,  but  strongly-set  figure  ;  his  face  marked 
with  the  small-pox,  but  now  ashy-hued,  though  with  a  fierce,  un- 
frightened  expression.  The  sirih  he  carried  in  his  mouth,  he  was 
chewing  quickly  from  one  side  to  the  other — the  only  sign  by 
which  he  betrayed  his  agitated  state  of  mind ;  and  his  eyes 
glanced  swiftly — but  as  I  thought  without  noticing  any  body — 
over  the  assembled  crowd.  He  wore  his  uniform,  and  a  red  rose 
in  one  of  his  button-holes  :  I  was  told  it  was  common  with  the 
natives  to  wear  flowers  when  led  to  death.  And  close  behind 
the  little  procession — for  the  prisoner  was  led  by  six  or  eight 
Malays — a  Mohammedan  priest  was  walking,  rather  unconcerned 
and  careless,  looking  over  the  collected  natives,  and  the  file  of  sol- 
diers around  him. 

On  the  foot  of  the  ladder,  on  coming  to  a  halt,  his  sentence  of 
death  was  read  to  him ;  he  listened  quietly  to  the  whole,  but 
when  the  speaker  had  done,  the  unhappy  man  lifted  himself  up 
to  his  full  height,  and  cursing  the  whites  and  the  whole  world, 
cried  with  a  hoarse  and  wild-sounding  voice  to  his  executioners, 
that  he  was  going  directly  to  heaven,  where  he  had  got  a  letter 
from  his  priest.  If  really  going  to  heaven,  on  earth  his  time  was 
over.  The  Malays  caught  hold  of  him,  and  tearing  the  regi- 
mental buttons  off  his  coat,  others  pinioned  his  arms  behind  his 
back,  and  dragged  him  up  the  ladder  by  the  rope  tied  round  his 
neck.  It  was  a  dreadful  spectacle.  A  few  moments  afterward, 
the  body  of  the  murderer  swung,  convulsively  shaking,  in  the  air. 
It  was  the  first  execution  I  ever  witnessed  with  martial  pomp, 
which  was  appropriate  to  a  festivity  rather  than  any  thing  else. 
I  shall  never  forget  it,  and  will  never  witness  another — if  I  can 
help  it. 

Capital  punishment  is  in  itself  a  dreadful  thing — the  law  takes 

Cc 


602  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

what  it  can  never  restore  ;  and  how  often  are  the  relations  of  the 
culprit,  innocent  of  any  crime,  the  only  parties  punished  by  such 
a  sentence !  But  this  is  still  more  the  case  when  we  see  a  man 
executed,  who  had  most  likely  committed  what  was  not  a  crime 
by  his  own  wild  laws,  and  was  executed  only  because  those 
against  whom  he  had  sinned,  were  the  stronger.  That  Malay 
had  murdered,  it  is  true,  his  sergeant,  a  white  man,  as  was  said, 
in  cold  blood ;  and  I  do  not  blame  the  Hollanders  for  punishing 
such  a  crime  in  such  a  place  with  death  ;  but  who  is  able  to  say, 
how  far  that  unhappy  man  was  really  guilty,  in  spite  of  having 
committed  such  a  deed  ?  Who  shall  know  what  passions  he  had 
tried  with  all  his  power  to  conquer,  till  he  had  been  driven  at 
last  to  strike  the  fatal  blow  ?  The  victim  of  it  had  certainly 
roused  his  vengeance  by  some  action  or  other — by  a  severe  punish- 
ment, maybe,  or  by  crossing  his  love — driving  the  native  to  jeal- 
ousy and  madness.  Even  the  custom  of  enrolling  is  made  to  sow 
hate  and  revenge  in  the  bosom  of  the  recruit,  frequently  from  the 
very  first  hour  of  his  service,  which  is  often  nourished  there  by 
some  foolish  and  overbearing  white  soldier  ;  and  the  blood  of  those 
brown  sons  of  a  tropical  clime  is  hot ! 

This  enrolling  of  soldiers  is  far  too  singular  though,  not  to  de- 
serve mention,  for  by  uniting  cunning  and  force,  it  brings  the 
natives,  seemingly  by  their  own  freewill,  into  the  military  serv- 
ice of  the  whites,  to  be  employed  there  at  discretion. 

The  Dutch  government  would  not  have  many  Malay  soldiers. 
if  the  latter  were  left  to  come  or  go,  and  is  not  willing  to  press 
them  entirely  against  their  will,  and  send  them  afterward  into 
the  dangerous  and  deadly  wars  against  other  wild  tribes.  Their 
passions  are,  therefore,  had  recourse  to,  to  secure  to  the  Javanese 
the  joys  of  glory  and  victory. 

All  being  passionate  gamblers,  are  easily  led  to  play  with  the 
sergeants,  but  having  very  seldom  much  money,  they  willingly 
accept  at  first  small  advances  to  continue  their  amusement,  hop- 
ing to  win  them  back.  If  they  do  win  the  money,  so  much  the 
better  for  them ;  but  if  not  they  have  to  come  for  more,  till  at 
last  the  sum  exceeds  their  own  property  ;  they  are  not  able  to  pay 
it,  and  now  have  to  stake  their  own  persons.  Does  the  Malay 
lose,  his  debts  are  paid  ;  he  even  gets  some  money  to  boot  some- 
times, and  is  a  soldier — and  a  slave.  But  the  reader  must  not 
think  that  he  runs  blindly  into  this  fate  ;  he  knows  very  well, 


LIFE  IN  BATAV1A.  603 

before  he  takes  up  the  cards,  what  he  risks.  No  doubt  his  free- 
will brought  him  to  the  gambling-tables,  but  here  the  European 
counts  upon  the  hot  passionate  blood  of  the  native,  to  urge  him 
on  to  the  game,  while  he  punishes  that  hot  blood  with  a  painful 
death,  as  soon  as  it  turns  against  himself. 

But  away,  away  from  these  painful  thoughts !  Have  you  a 
spot  upon  this  wide  world,  where  things  are  better  ordered  ?  Death 
and  destruction  are  at  work,  even  where  nature  has  spent  all  her 
riches  to  create  a  Paradise,  and  man  is  every  where  the  same 
blood-thirsty,  untamed  animal,  whether  he  runs  naked  in  the  woods 
with  spear  and  war-club  in  his  hand,  or  lives  fashionably  dressed 
amid  the  luxuries  of  every  clirne.  Wherever  we  go,  we  see — 
sometimes  under  a  golden  robe,  sometimes  under  rags — despair 
and  misery,  perdition  and  death.  We  pass  such  objects  after 
a  while  with  a  kind  of  indifference,  ay,  unconsciousness — we  get 
so  used  to  them ;  but  turning  eye  and  mind  once  with  full  earn- 
estness upon  them,  the  heart-rending  reality  strikes  us  with  pity 
and  dread,  and  we  stand  shuddering  upon  the  brink  of  an  ocean 
of  misery,  we  must  be  more  than  gods  to  be  able  to  soothe  or 
relieve. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

JAPAN  AND  THE  JAPANESE  TOKO. 

THE  Dutch  Government  sends  yearly,  as  the  reader  knows,  ac- 
cording to  a  treaty  of  commerce  established  with  the  Emperor  of 
Japan,  one  vessel  to  Decima,  a  small  island  or  part  of  the  main 
isle  of  Nipon,  connected  with,  but  also  parted  by  a  bridge,  which 
the  Europeans  residing  there  dare  not  pass,  without  the  permis- 
sion of  the  Japanese  authorities.  And  such  a  permission  is  only 
granted  every  three  years,  when  the  regular  embassadors  travel 
up  to  Jeddo,  to  pay  their  respects  to  the  Emperor. 

In  this  vessel  they  Jiave  their  certain  articles  which  they  take 
to  Japan,  colonial  produce — the  chief  of  it,  sugar — and  European 
manufactures — taking  back  in  exchange  a  peculiar  kind  of  Japa- 
nese metal  like  bronze,  Japan  copper,  and  several  other  articles. 
This  trade  is  a  monopoly  of  government,  which  allows,  however, 
the  export  of  a  certain  quantity  of  goods,  of  porcelain  and  china- 
ware,  varnished  goods,  silks,  bronze  knickknacks,  basket-works, 
and  other  playthings,  annually  for  a  very  large  sum  to  private 
persons.  They  may  trade  with  the  Japanese  in  what  they  please, 
except  such  things  as  government  takes  over. 

The  whole  commerce  with  Japan  is  an  exchange  of  goods — 
foreigners  not  being  allowed  to  take  a  single  piece  of  money  with 
them  ;  there  is  indeed  a  severe  law  existing,  to  guard  against 
money  being  taken  to  Decima.  Every  thing  they  want  to  buy, 
while  they  stay  there,  is  delivered  to  them,  and  marked  down, 
and  the  state  pays  the  expenses  for  its  officers — nobody  else  being 
allowed  to  stay  in  Decima — in  goods  at  fixed  prices. 

The  Emperor  of  Japan  seems  a  very  independent  sovereign ; 
for  not  even  the  presents  his  Majesty  the  King  of  Holland  sent 
him,  some  time  ago,  which  consisted,  I  believe  of  a  very  precious 
set  of  plates,  would  he  accept,  answering  quite  indignantly,  if  he 


JAPAN  AND  THE  JAPANESE  TOKO.        605 

the  Emperor  of  Japan  made  a  present  to  the  King  of  Holland  he 
could  do  so,  for  he  was  the  Emperor  of  Japan,  but  this  being 
quite  another  thing  he  would  not  accept  it. 

To  show  his  Excellency  the  Governor  of  the  Indies  his  con- 
tinual grace,  he  sends  him  annually  one  dozen  of  thick-wadded 
silk  morning  gowns — very  useful  for  a  climate  like  Batavia — 
which  are  put  up  at  auction  just  as  regularly  as  they  are  received. 

Japan  has  drawn  in  the  course  of  the  last  years  the  attention 
of  nearly  all  the  civilized  nations  upon  itself;  America  seems 
determined  to  get  a  foot-hold  there,  while  Holland  of  course  does 
not  like  to  see  such  experiments  going  on.  The  profit  of  her 
trade,  confined  to  one  single  vessel  for  the  whole  year,  can  not  be 
very  great ;  and  it  seems  more  an  affair  of  honor  (including  the 
homage  every  three  years) ;  still  1  have  not  the  least  doubt  the 
Dutch  will  do  all  in  their  power  to  make  these  experiments  un- 
successful. 

By  love  and  kindness  neither  America  nor  any  other  nation 
can  expect  to  get  any  thing  out  of  the  Japanese.  I  have  not  the 
least  doubt  that  the  Emperor  will  refuse  to  receive  the  embassa- 
dors,  or  if  he  does  grant  them  an  interview,  he  will  dismiss  them 
again,  without  even  promises  ;  and  yet  the  Emperor  of  Japan  is 
not  so  ignorant  of  affairs  as  people  commonly  suspect.  He  has 
all  kinds — and  the  best  of  them — of  geographical  and  historical 
works  translated  into  his  language,  and  interpreters  for  nearly 
every  country ;  and  he  is  wide  awake  by  this  time  as  to  what 
others  are  about,  and  what  he  has  to  expect.  It  is  also  not  likely 
that  he  should  be  ignorant  of  the  power  of  his  antagonists  ;  still 
I  do  not  think  he  will  be  persuaded  to  any  thing ;  and  then  the 
question  arises  if  other  nations  will  take  what  they  can  not  get 
with  a  freewill,  will  it  not  be  necessary  to  frame  a  new  code  of 
laws  stating  the  certain  sum  or  amount  of  property,  where  stealing 
ends  and  justifiable  possession  commences. 

It  will  not  be  such  an  easy  war  with  the  Japanese  though — 
the  richest  bees  defend  their  hives  the  most  fiercely,  and  the 
Japanese  are  far  better  soldiers  than  the  Chinese ;  their  coasts 
being  well  guarded  by  cliffs  and  rocks,  while  the  unsteady  weather 
and  sudden  gales  of  those  latitudes,  are  also  in  their  favor  against 
an  approaching  or  cruising  enemy. 

The  smaller  islands  may  be  taken,  I  have  no  doubt — at  least, 
cut  off  from  connection  with  the  large  ones ;  but  hostile  nations 


606  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

will  find  the  Japanese  far  better  prepared  for  an  attack  than  they 
now  suspect. 

Another  difficulty  with  the  Japanese  will  be  the  impossibility 
of  half-measures.  If  the  Americans  do  force  an  entrance  upon 
some  point — and  it  is  as  likely  as  not  that  they  may  do  so — and 
do  not  take  the  whole  island,  they  will  be  walled  in,  in  a  very 
short  time,  and  permitted  to  see  little  enough  of  their  neighbors. 
Still  the  islands  are  too  small  to  resist  for  any  length  of  time,  re- 
newed attacks  ;  and  his  Majesty  will  have  to  yield,  first  his  coun- 
try and  then  his  crown,  just  about  as  willingly  as  the  Californian 
Indians,  or  Sikhs,  or  Australian  blacks,  or,  in  fact,  "all  other  nations 
that  have  seen  their  countries  overrun  by  strangers  and  enemies. 

As  yet,  the  Japanese  avoid  even  the  least  approach  of  strangers. 
It  is  well  known  how  quickly  they  provide  shipwrecked  seamen, 
who  are  thrown  upon  their  shores — if  they  do  not  attempt  to  see 
more  of  the  country  than  they  are  allowed — with  every  thing 
they  need,  only  to  get  rid  of  them  as  quickly  as  possible.  Their 
own  firshermen  out  at  sea  are  not  allowed,  under  penalty  of  death, 
to  have  the  least  intercourse  with  foreign  vessels  ;  indeed,  if  ship- 
wrecked, and  saved  by  one  of  them,  and  landed  again  on  the 
Japanese  coast  they  have  to  prove  first  that  they  could  not  save 
themselves  in  any  other  way,  to  be  permitted  to  live — but  they 
are  prisoners  forever. 

Exceedingly  severe  are  also  the  interdictions  of  government,  to 
those  Japanese  who  come  in  contact  with  the  Dutch  at  Decima ; 
they  are  allowed  to  provide  every  thing  which  is  lawful ;  if  they 
should  dare  to  help  the  strangers  to  such  articles  as  are  denied, 
they  would  be  severely  punished.  Pictures  of  the  interior,  paint- 
ings of  high  or  holy  persons — particularly  of  the  Emperor — 
weapons,  even  drawings  of  them — any  thing  having  the  least 
connection  with  their  gods,  books,  manuscripts,  or  money,  are 
prohibited. 

The  Japanese  are  heathens — that  is,  they  have  their  particular 
gods  ;  and  I  was  told  by  some  gentlemen,  who  had  staid  a  con- 
siderable time  in  Japan,  that  an  old  law  was  still  in  operation, 
which  obliged  the  Japanese  to  stamp  upon  the  cross  with  the 
Saviour,  to  show  their  aversion  to  such  a  god.  The  cross  they 
desecrate  in  this  way  is  an  old  stone  emblem  brought  by  Christian 
ministers  who  had  converted  a  great  many  Japanese  to  Christian- 
ity. The  consequence  was,  as  in  many  other  countries,  hate  and 


JAPAN  AND  THE  JAPANESE  TOKO.  607 

dissatisfaction  throughout  the  state,  and  between  individual  fam- 
ilies ;  and  the  heathen  party,  being  stronger  than  the  other,  took 
to  their  weapons,  when  unheard  of  atrocities  were  committed  to 
rid  the  country  of  the  new  god.  Even  at  the  present  time,  the 
subjects  of  Japan  have  been  known  to  stamp  upon  an  old  stone 
cross,  which  is  said  to  have  formerly  borne  the  figure  of  the  cru- 
cified, of  whom,  nothing  is  now  discernible  —  the  feet  of  the 
heathens  having  obliterated  the  sculpture. 

For  the  small  settlement  of  Decima,  existing  under  their  parti- 
cular control,  the  Japanese  seem  to  feel  a  kind  of  inclination, 
which  long  habit  has  most  likely  done  much  to  establish.  The 
Hollanders,  like  all  those  with  whom  they  have  intercourse,  are 
treated  with  kindness,  and  can  easily  procure  goods  and  things 
not  permitted  to  reach  Decima.  The  Japanese  government  also 
wants  to  make  them  comfortable,  as  long  as  they  are  upon  their 
territories ;  those  who  are  stationed  at  Decima,  as  well  as  those 
who  come  over  there  with  the  annual  vessel,  get,  while  they 
stay,  a  wife  each,  for  which  he  has  to  pay  a  certain  rent  annu- 
ally. But  if  he  leave  the  station,  he  must  also  leave  his  Japan- 
ese spouse ;  and  if  she  should  have  children,  they  are  Japanese, 
arid  are  not  permitted  to  follow  the  father. 

Prostitution,  however,  by  all  I  have  heard  about  it,  seems  to 
be  more  an  honor  in  Japan,  than  a  shame  for  the  women ;  for 
one  of  their  own  empresses  of  old  had  to  save  her  lord  and  em- 
peror in  this  way,  when  he  had  been  driven  from  his  throne  by 
a  hostile  party,  and  was  hiding  in  obscurity  to  escape  death. 
An  emperor  or  an  empress  in  Japan  can  never  sin,  and  since 
that  empress  was  driven  to  such  an  extremity,  that  sin  ceased 
to  be  a  crime. 

During  my  stay  in  Batavia,  the  Japanese  vessel  returned  from 
this  year's  trip,  bringing  a  new  load  of  goods,  which  were  to  be 
exhibited  before  Christmas.  So,  on  the  23d  of  December,  the 
Japanese  "  toko,"  or  store — a  commonly  used  Malayan  word  in 
Batavia — was  opened ;  at  first,  one  day  for  his  Excellency,  the 
Governor,  and  his  lady,  arid  the  higher  officers ;  and  the  next, 
for  the  multitude. 

That  first  morning  was  really  a  treat,  and  I  would  not  have 
missed  it  for  much ;  for  the  new-brought  silks  we-re  exhibited  for 
sale,  and  nearly  all  the  ladies  of  Batavia  were  of  course  there,  to 
see  what  had  corne,  arid  select  what  they  liked. 


608  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

Entering  the  toko — for  I  shall  keep  that  word,  as  the  place, 
in  fact,  is  not  known  by  any  other  name  in  Batavia — I  had 
to  stop  first,  where  I  was,  at  the  door,  for  the  whole  room  was 
crowded  with  the  fair  sex — indeed,  the  table  upon  which  the 
silks  were  spread,  I  do  not  think  I  could  have  reached  with  a 
ten-foot  pole,  nor  its  neighborhood  ;  and  as  for  edging  a  way 
through,  by-and-by — dear  reader,  the  idea  was  ridiculous.  You 
edge  your  way  through  a  crowd  of  Batavian  ladies,  and  see  what 
happens — they  are  no  ethereal  beings,  tripping  along  over  the 
dewy  ground,  and  not  bending  the  halms  to  wet  their  feet;  no, 
the  ladies  of  Batavia,  particularly  when  they  reach  a  certain  age, 
show  in  their  forms  the  good  and  comfortable  life  they  lead  ;  not 
being  permitted  hardly  to  walk  outside  their  doors,  but  always 
riding  the  shortest  distance  in  a  carriage,  with  numbers  of  serv- 
ants to  execute  and  command  the  least  wish. 

So  keeping  the  outer  edge,  and  seeing  only  once  in  a  while 
one  of  the  sweet  mass,  working  herself  out  of  the  breakers  to 
secure  her  booty,  I  had  to  be  satisfied  that  morning  with  the 
porcelain  room,  where  also  a  good  many  bronze  wares  were  ex- 
hibited. 

The  toko  consisted  of  three  divisions,  or  rooms  ;  one  of  these 
was  entirely  filled  with  the  chief  article  of  Japanese  manufacture 
— the  varnished  wares — the  Japanese  enjoying  a  perfection  in 
these,  never  equaled  yet  by  any  other  nation ;  the  second  part 
was  filled,  as  I  have  mentioned  before,  by  porcelain  and  bronze ; 
and  the  third  or  front  room,  by  varnished  ware,  silks,  playthings, 
and  many  other  knickknacks. 

In  porcelain,  I  saw  some  exceedingly  fine  goods.  Cups,  for 
instance,  as  fine  and  transparent  as  if  they  had  been  made  from 
some  gelatine  substance.  Singularly-shaped  tea-pots,  and  cups 
also  were  there,  down  to  the  most  common  china  ware. 

The  bronze  figures  are  said  to  have  an  extremely  high  value 
by  their  being  hammered  out,  most  all  of  them,  and  not  cast  in 
forms ;  but  if  the  workmanship  in  that  case  was  to  be  admired, 
the  figures  most  certainly  could  not  be  compared  with  such  as 
the  principal  French  and  English  artists  are  able  to  produce. 

The  varnished  goods,  before  all  other  things,  claimed  my  at- 
tention ;  and  I  went  to  that  toko  I  do  not  know  how  many  times, 
but  never  left  it  again  without  having  spent  at  least  full  an  hour 
admiring  the  perfection  with  which  the  Japanese  had  executed 


JAPAN  AND  THE  JAPANESE  TOKO.        609 

these  wares.  Large  writing-tables  and  Japanese  commodes 
with  irregular  drawers  and  partitions,  every  kind  of  furniture, 
with  fire-screens,  and  ladies'  work-tables — in  short,  every  thing 
you  could  find  here — down  to  work-boxes,  trays,  cups  and  saucers 
— all  of  varnished  wood,  and  finished  off  to  perfection.  Not  the 
outside  only  of  the  different  commodes  and  writing-desks  was 
carefully  finished  ;  the  lower  part  and  back  of  the  drawers,  the 
bottom  pieces,  which  never  could  be  seen  again,  after  being  once 
put  up,  were  completed  with  the  same  care  as  the  front  and 
upper  sides  ;  only  not  ornamented. 

This  varnish  being  so  extraordinarily  composed,  allows  boiling 
water  upon  its  surface  without  injury ;  and  their  tea-cups  made 
of  wood  and  covered  with  it,  are  perfectly  fit  to  be  used  for  any 
purpose. 

The  Japanese  are  fond  of  rich  drawings  and  paintings  upon 
all  their  furniture — at  least,  upon  all  that  is  brought  here  to 
market — particularly  in  mother-of-pearl,  which  they  know  how 
to  inlay  in  the  thinnest  possible  blades,  forming  flowers  or  fruits, 
landscapes  or  animals,  but  principally  birds.  So  finely  wrought 
are  these  paintings  sometimes,  particularly  in  the  large  pieces, 
that  I  have  thought  frequently,  and  am  yet  of  the  opinion,  that 
they  have  found  out  some  way  or  other  to  melt  or  dissolve  that 
shining  and  glittering  material,  the  mother-of-pearl,  to  lay  it  upon 
what  they  please  afterward,  in  a  thin  sheet  without  a  brush. 
They  excel,  also,  in  their  other  varnishes,  principally  in  red  and 
black,  with  gold  and  silver  ornaments ;  and  I  much  admired 
some  tables  upon  which  the  skillful  workmen,  as  you  would  lay 
five  cards  into  each  other  in  a  circle  to  show  a  part  of  each,  had 
arranged  the  five  different  styles  of  varnishing,  all  executed  in 
the  same  perfection,  upon  one  plate. 

In  painting,  however,  they  labor  under  the  same  disadvantages 
as  the  Chinese.  Concerning  perspective,  they  have  an  idea  of 
it,  and  some  works  of  that  kind  are  executed  without  many 
faults  ;  but  generally  they  know  very  little  about  it,  and  have 
plenty  of  room  for  improvement  there  at  least. 

The  next  day  it  was  possible  to  get  a  sight  of  the  silken  goods, 
the  fair  half  of  Batavia  having  left.  There  were  dresses  at 
twenty-five  roopiahs  each,  all  of  them  in  a  small  squared  pattern; 
nothing  extraordinary,  the  Chinese  silk  being  just  as  tasteful  and 
far  cheaper.  But  besides  this,  there  were  some  crape  shawls, 

cc* 


610  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

most  beautifully  woven  and  colored ;  the  large  quantity  the  con- 
tractor had  brought  over  this  year  with  him,  had  prevented  the 
ladies  carrying  off  every  one  of  them  the  first  day — two  days 
afterward  not  one  was  left.  Husbands  have  a  hard  time  in 
Batavia  when  the  Japanese  ship  arrives. 

In  this  room  there  were  also  the  playthings,  that  the  Japan- 
ese are  very  expert  in  inventing  as  well  as  executing — little  dolls, 
they  had  as  nicely  made  as  I  have  ever  seen  a  doll  in  my  life, 
and  at  the  same  time  in  its  true,  droll,  childish,  Japanese  char- 
acter. Little  gold-fish  and  turtles,  moving  on  wire  in  little 
counterfeit  ponds  ;  regular  toys  for  children,  in  all  imaginable 
queer  forms,  besides  a  quantity  of  other  little  articles  and  knick- 
knacks  ;  porcelain  figures  with  shaking  heads,  and  in  and  out 
darting  tongues,  ivory  figures  and  gilded  statues,  two  or  three 
inches  high,  fans,  bamboo-boxes,  and  different  kinds  of  cigar-fams, 
snuff-boxes,  &c.  Among  the  cigar-6tuis,  one  kind  I  felt  a  cer- 
tain interest  for,  as  I  had  been  told  beforehand  the  material  out 
of  which  they  had  been  made,  was  nothing  else  than  the  hide 
of  a  human  body.  It  most  certainly  looked  rather  singular,  hav- 
ing besides,  a  very  peculiar,  sharp,  and  unpleasant  smell ;  but 
others  to  whom  I  spoke,  particularly  Dr.  Mohnike,  who  had 
lived  at  Decima  three  years,  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  it  was  a 
certain  kind  of  paper,  made  out  of  the  bark  of  trees.  It  looked, 
though,  far  more  like  hide  than  paper. 

A  large  quantity  of  paper  umbrellas,  made  of  bamboo  and 
oiled  paper  only,  straw  mats,  in  tasteful  colors,  brooms,  catsups, 
agger  agger,  ordinary  stone  and  china  ware,  and  boxes  full  of 
basket-work  formed  the  bulk  of  the  goods. 

The  agger  agger  deserves  a  closer  description,  at  least  in  its 
use.  It  is  a  kind  of  fungus,  as  I  was  told,  looking  very  much 
like  the  pith  of  a  quill,  even  tasting  like  it,  if  you  take  it  unboiled 
upon  your  tongue  ;  but  boiled  a  certain  time,  produces  a  gelatine 
mass,  equal  to  our  isinglass  The  Chinese  are  very  fond  of  this  ; 
they  prefer,  indeed,  all  such  jelly-like  masses,  paying  for  Indian 
birds'  nests  enormous  sums,  and  if  they  can  not  afford  so  high  a 
price,  preferring  sharks'  fins  and  the  like.  But  this  agger  agger 
is  also  relished  by  the  Europeans  of  Batavia  exceedingly,  as  a 
cooling  and  pleasant  jelly,  particularly  if  prepared  with  wine, 
fruit-juice,  or  chocolate.  They  have  a  similar  plant  growing 
round  Java,  but  of  a  more  mossy  character — looking  very  much 


JAPAN  AND  THE  JAPANESE  TOKO.        611 

like  island  moss — and  not  of  such  good  quality  as  the  Japanese, 
since  it  will  not  stiffen  to  a  jelly,  without  putting  lemon-juice  to  it. 

Remarkable,  also,  is  the  exactitude  with  which  the  Japanese 
finish  off  every  thing  ;  even  the  packing  of  their  goods,  is  with- 
out fault,  being  mostly  in  nice  little  boxes  of  white  wood,  care- 
fully planed  and  tied  up  in  a  very  practical  fashion.  And  even 
large  chests  and  boxes  are  never  sent  out  to  Europeans  without 
giving  them  a  proof  of  the  accuracy  and  precision  of  the  first  peo- 
ple under  the  sun.  There  is  not  a  large  chest  that  is  not  care- 
fully planed,  and  lids  and  corners  fit  to  a  nicety — the  packers 
leave  nothing  to  wish  for. 

The  Japanese  toko  is  always  three  months  open  in  Batavia — 
after  this  time,  the  rest  of  the  goods  are  packed  up  again  and 
sent  to  Holland. 

As  a  proof  how  excellent  are  their  fabrics,  merchants  have 
bought  Japanese  ware  in  Batavia,  and  sent  them  over  to  China, 
where  varnished  goods  are  also  made  in  quantities,  exceedingly 
cheap,  and  the  Chinese  have  paid  very  large  sums  for  them ;  so 
each  nation  has  its  peculiar  branch  of  workmanship  in  which  it 
excels,  and  as  impossible  as  it  is  at  present  for  the  Chinese  to 
imitate  this  varnish,  equally  unable  are  the  Japanese  to  complete 
such  works  in  ivory  as  the  Chinese,  for  an  extraordinary  low  price, 
are  producing. 

I  was  fortunate  enough  to  make,  in  Batavia,  the  acquaintance 
of  Dr.  Mohnike,  who  had  been  three  years  at  Decirna,  and  was 
one  of  the  embassadors  sent  to  Jeddo  the  last  year.  Dr.  Mohnike, 
I  am  sure,  could  give  many  interesting  accounts  of  this  singular 
country,  if  the  Dutch  government  would  allow  him  to  write 
about  such  things,  but  its  officers  are  not  permitted  even  to  speak, 
at  least  particulars  that  might  possibly  teach  other  nations  things 
they 'do  not  want  known,  at  the  present  juncture  of  affairs  with 
Japan. 

Still  there  were  many  subjects  we  could  talk  about,  and  his 
collection  of  articles  he  had  brought  with  him  were  very  inter- 
esting. Among  other  things  was  a  model  of  the  sedan-chair, 
the  embassadors  traveling  to  Jeddo  invariably  use,  which  must 
have  been  a  very  comfortable  affair,  as  it  was  carried  along  in  a 
perfect  little  room,  covered  with  silk  and  soft  mattresses  and  cush- 
ions. This  sedan-chair,  proves  the  error  in  circulation  at  this 
time,  that  the  Japanese  held  travelers  boxed  up  in  such  a  convey- 


612  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

ance,  to  prevent  their  getting  a  glance  of  the  surrounding  country. 
Dr.  Mohnike  assured  me  he  not  only  could  open  or  close  his 
jalousies,  whenever  he  chose,  but  even  walk  on  the  side  of  the 
chair  where  and  when  he  saw  fit,  without  finding  the  least  oppo- 
sition from  his  companions  and  guards ;  but  he  was  not  allowed 
to  strike  into  any  road  but  the  straight  one. 

The  most  interesting  things  for  me  were  a  parcel  of  Japanese 
prints,  Dr.  M.  had  fortunately  acquired  there,  as  also  some  Japan- 
ese books,  among  which,  a  botanical  Work,  with  excellent  draw- 
ings, was  the  most  important. 

Others  were  illustrated  novels,  and  others  upon  historical 
affairs  ;  there  were  also  landscapes  and  views  of  certain  parts  of 
the  country — all  forbidden  things  for  export,  which,  perhaps, 
would  have  cost  the  life  of  the  person  who  delivered  them  to  the 
Europeans,  if  found  out ;  for  numerous  persons  were  executed, 
after  another  German,  Seybold,  who  had  been  in  the  service  of 
the  Dutch  government  at  Decima,  and  collected  a  great  many 
such  forbidden  things  on  the  sly,  had  left  Japan. 

In  dress,  as  in  many  of  their  habits,  the  Japanese,  as  the  closest 
neighbors  to  the  Chinese,  bear  most  certainly  much  similitude ; 
only  the  women  have  more  sense,  than  to  cripple  their  feet  in 
such  a  deadful  manner,  as  the  Chinese  ladies  nearly  always  do. 
They  use  their  feet  and  body  as  God  Almighty  have  given  them, 
and  neither  cramp  their  toes  like  the  Chinese,  nor  their  waists 
like  European  ladies,  into  unnatural  forms  ;  even  going  so  far  as 
to  wear  gloves  upon  their  feet,  with  a  division  for  the  large  toe, 
to  walk  comfortably  in  their  sandals. 

Besides  this,  the  ladies  wear  very  broad  girdle  bands  of  stiff 
and  heavy  silken  stuff,  and  their  hair  plaited  together  in  the  most 
singular  and  extraordinary  manner,  stuck  through  with  long  bolts 
and  arrows ;  but  I  am,  unfortunately,  not  hairdresser  enough,  to 
give  my  fair  readers  a  true  description  of  it ;  only  so  much  I  can 
tell  them,  to  keep  this  hair — which  must  be  very  tedious  to  plait 
— in  good  order,  they  use  large  and  long  pillows.  Dr.  Mohnike 
had  one  in  his  collection — made  out  of  wood,  with  a  small  cush- 
ion at  top,  the  whole  being  about  ten  inches  high,  and  two  or 
three  broad,  for  the  ladies  to  rest  their  heads  on  while  sleeping 
— it  almost  breaks  one's  neck  only  to  look  at  such  a  "  fixing." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE    EUROPEANS    IN    BATAVIA. CONCLUSION. 

THE  Europeans  in  Batavia  are  mixed — a  few  specimens  from 
every  nation ;  but  then  they  are  also  only  specimens,  and  the 
chief  part  consists  of  course  of  Hollanders,  after  these,  Englishmen 
and  Germans  are  the  most  numerous,  and  lately  the  French  have 
come  over  here.  The  Dutch  have  most  certainly  all  the  public 
employments,  and  a  great,  if  not  the  greatest  part  of  the  trade  in 
their  hands. 

All  the  Germans  and  Englishmen  in  Batavia  are  merchants, 
with  the  exception  of  some  few  Germans  in  Dutch  employ  as 
physicians,  or  even  higher  offices,  civil  and  military. 

The  common  soldiers  can  not  be  counted  here,  as  they  do  not 
come  in  the  least  contact  with  the  other  European  population, 
frequently  are  not  even  considered  white  men  by  a  part  of  the 
inhabitants  ;  being  thrown  back,  in  fact,  entirely  upon  their  fel- 
low-soldiers, the  Malays  and  negroes. 

The  French,  on  the  contrary,  have  chosen  here,  with  only  very 
few  exceptions,  another  branch  ;  there  are  now  actually  only 
two  classes  of  them  in  town — actors  and  tradesmen  ;  and  the 
latter,  in  a  singular  way,  originate  the  former.  There  is  a  very 
good  opera  kept  in  Batavia ;  all  the  performers  being  French, 
who  come  here  from  France.  The  public  knows  nothing  of  them 
but  that  they  are  very  good  actors  and  actresses,  some  even  with 
beautiful  voices  ;  but  scarcely  has  their  contract  run  out,  their 
season  passed,  when  having  discovered  the  state  of  society  and 
business  in  Batavia,  they  suddenly  display  themselves  in  quite 
different  characters ;  dropping  the  purple  and  crown  of  the 
boards,  and  appearing  before  the  rather  astonished  public  as 
watchmakers,  tailors,  coachmakers,  milliners,  and  the  Lord 
knows  what. 


614  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

But  this  transformation,  though  natural  enough,  has  been  the 
cause  of  some  embarrassment  to  the  other  Europeans  and  the  aris- 
tocratic population.  In  former  times,  and  only  a  few  years  back, 
there  existed  no  such  class  of  European  tradesmen  in  Batavia — all 
belonged  to  the  aristocracy  of  the  land,  which  at  this  moment 
most  assuredly  intends  to  make  a  difference  between  a  gentleman 
and  a  gentleman's  tailor.  In  their  families  they  can,  without 
the  least  difficulty,  do  this ;  but  it  is  impossible  in  the  theatre, 
which  never  was  built  for  such  a  distinction,  having  only  one 
price  for  admittance,  in  fact  a  gallery  only,  with  a  kind  of  pit  in 
the  centre,  the  latter  for  gentlemen  only,  the  gallery  for  ladies 
and  gentlemen  too.  A  natural  process  at  last  seemed  to  divide 
the  different  parties,  nature  always  being  the  best  physician  for 
such  evils — and  such  they  were  held,  of  course.  Those  families 
which  did  not  belong  to  the  aristocracy,  had  chosen  for  themselves 
a  certain  side  of  the  gallery,  where  they  most  commonly  took 
their  places  ;  the  others  soon  found  this  out,  and  their  selection 
acquired  a  name,  derived  from  the  place  where  some  of  them 
lived,  the  frikkadellen  board.  The  aristocracy  moved  over  to 
the  other  side,  leaving  though,  as  droll  fate  would  have  it,  and 
as  a  kind  of  consolation  for  the  slighted,  his  Excellency  the  Lieu- 
tenant-governor of  the  Dutch  colonies  in  the  Indian  Archipelago, 
just  in  front  of  this  same  frikkadellen  board,  where  he  always  took 
his  seat. 

The  theatre  of  Batavia  is  a  fine,  lofty,  and  airy  building,  with 
good  scenery  and  good  costumes,  and  the  opera  I  saw  there  was 
executed  extremely  well.  Rather  singular,  but  perhaps  accord- 
ing to  local  circumstances,  is  the  price  of  entrance  arranged.  In- 
habitants of  Batavia  have  to  pay  for  a  single  performance  ten 
roopiahs,  while  they  can  have  for  twenty  roopiahs — paid  before- 
hand— admission  for  the  whole  month,  each  week  two  perform- 
ances ;  strangers  pay,  at  the  same  time,  only  five  roopiahs  for  a 
single  performance.  All  the  inhabitants  of  Batavia,  therefore, 
who  wish  sometimes  to  visit  the  theatre,  are  forced  to  take  an 
admission  for  the  whole  month  ;  and  having  no  other  amuse- 
ments in  town,  except  visiting  their  neighbors,  and  for  the  gentle- 
men two  clubs,  they  nearly  all  subscribe. 

After  the  theatre,  I  think  the  hospital  of  Batavia  deserves  to  be 
mentioned ;  there  is  a  contrast  in  the  two  ;  a  few  steps  only, 
sometimes,  from  the  one  into  the  other,  particularly  in  these  hot 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  BATAVIA.  615 

climes.  Still  Batavia  is  far  less  unhealthy  than  is  commonly 
imagined  ;  there  is  sickness  and  fever  it  is  true — the  latter  fre- 
quently of  a  dangerous  character,  arising  principally  from  the  low 
and  swampy  situation  of  the  town — but  nearly  all  the  foreigners 
I  got  acquainted  with  there,  particularly  Germans,  who  had 
been  used  to  a  cold  northern  clime  from  their  childhood,  were 
living,  with  only  few  exceptions,  in  a  very  good  state  of  health, 
assuring  me  that  they  had  been  so  nearly  all  the  time  they  had 
passed  in  Batavia.  The  hospital  I  visited  was  mostly  inhabited 
by  soldiers,  and  a  very  great  part  of  these  were  suffering  from  a 
sickness  they  might  have  had  in  a  cold  and  healthy  climate. 

At  first  I  was  rather  afraid  to  enter  a  Batavian  hospital — old 
prejudices  are  hard  to  overcome,  and  I  had  pictured  to  myself  a 
low  building  with  dark  clammy  cells,  and  the  putrefied  air  of  the 
sick  chamber,  with  the  concentered  maladies  of  the  whole  district 
— and  this  district  Batavia  ;  but  I  was  very  agreeably  surprised, 
for  instead  of  the  atmosphere  I  had  expected,  I  found  the  pure  and 
cool  draught  of  free  and  open  rooms,  where  the  fresh  air  had  ac- 
cess from  every  side,  leaving  the  sick,  though  sheltered  against 
the  wind  or  an  unhealthy  draught,  in  a  perfectly  cool  and  re- 
freshing atmosphere  ;  while  the  spread  iron-bedsteads,  the  sick 
in  clean  clothing,  and  the  attendants  quietly  walking  up  and 
down  between  them  to  give  medicine  or  what  else  was  needed, 
made  such  an  impression  upon  me,  that  I  would  have  most  wil- 
lingly consigned  myself  from  that  moment  to  the  care  of  this  in- 
stitution, had  I  been  unfortunate  enough  to  become  sick,  in  spite 
of  the  different  ideas  I  had  entered  the  place  with,  hardly  half  an. 
hour  ago. 

Each  malady,  common  in  Batavia,  has  its  separate  rooms  or 
buildings,  and  these  are  separated  again  by  small  but  pleasant 
gardens.  Europeans  and  natives  are  also  separated  here  ;  and 
several  children  from  out  of  the  orphan's  institute,  who  had  been 
cured  here,  and  were  going  to  be  sent  back  that  day,  cried  and 
refused  to  go — a  great  compliment  to  the  hospital,  or  the  reverse 
for  the  orphans'  institute. 

"With  the  hospital  an  auditory  for  anatomy  and  medical  science 
in  general,  for  the  benefit  of  young  natives,  has  been  recently 
erected  ;  of  course,  the  young  students  are  taught  here  also  some 
of  the  other  necessary  sciences,  and  the  result,  known  as  yet,  is 
said  to  be  promising  enough. 


616  JOURNEY  HOUND  THE  WORLD. 

The  gentleman,  who  had  the  most  merit,  in  calling  this  insti- 
tution into  life,  and  conducting  the  whole  course  and  progress  of 
the  hospital,  having  also  there  the  superintendence,  is  a  Dr. 
Wassing.  Having  established  there  every  thing  quite  in  military 
order,  he  has  made  that  hospital  a  blessing  to  the  city,  and  has 
saved  many  a  poor  devil's  life,  who  getting  sick  in  Batavia,  only 
had  to  thank  this  institution  for  ever  coming  upon  his  feet 
again. 

But  it  was  time  for  me  to  think  of  home  again ;  though  Bata- 
via most  certainly  did  not  let  me  feel  I  was  in  a  strange  part  of 
the  world,  Germans  as  well  as  Hollanders  continuing  to  show  me 
kindness.  Of  my  new  friends,  I  must  not  forget  to  mention 
Lieutenant-colonel  Schierbrand,  who  did  not  cease  to  show  him- 
self friendly  to  me.  But  home  is  home.  The  last  letter  I  had 
received  in  Batavia  from  my  family  being  twelve  months  old,  I 
thought  it  best  to  go  back,  and  give  up  a  life  I  had  intended  to 
lead  for  about  two  years,  which  was  entering  now  its  fourth. 
Therefore,  I  had  to  give  up  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  which  I  had 
wanted  to  visit,  finding  no  opportunity  of  landing  there,  as  ves- 
sels, going  round  it,  prefer  touching  at  St.  Helena  to  take  in 
water,  than  at  the  Cape,  for  which  they  have  to  run  out  of  their 
course  some  distance,  with  an  unsafe  harbor  into  the  bargain, 
while  St.  Helena,  lying  in  their  very  track,  can  supply  them  in 
one  day  with  all  the  water  and  other  refreshments  they  may 
want,  while  they  are  ready  and  able  to  get  up  their  anchors 
and  go  to  sea  again,  whenever  there  should  be  quick  occasion 
for  it. 

A  trip  to  the  Cape  would  also  have  cost  me  at  least  six  or 
eight  months  more ;  in  one  word,  I  was  way-worn  and  home- 
sick. So  for  home  then,  at  last,  in  good  earnest ;  and  it  was  a 
feeling  he  can  only  appreciate,  who  has  once  left  all  he  loved 
upon  this  earth — all  he  called  his  own,  to  stray  far  and  long  away 
into  strange  and  foreign  lands,  completely  out  of  reach  of  hearing 
of  those  he  left  behind. 

I  found  a  vessel  bound  straight  for  the  Weser ;  and  having 
taken  part  of  my  things  on  board,  was  expecting  every  minute 
to  be  called,  when  a  sudden  gale  setting  in,  the  sea  broke  with 
such  force  against  the  coral  channel  leading  out  from  town  into 
the  harbor,  as  to  make  a  passage  out  and  in  with  boats,  if  not 
impossible,  extremely  dangerous.  A  blue  flag  is  hoisted  in  such 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  BAT  AVI  A.  617 

cases  from  the  top  of  the  look-out,  as  well  as  from  the  watch- 
ship,  to  denote  to  all  captains  and  skippers  the  state  of  affairs,  and 
warn  them  to  stay  on  board  or  in  town,  wherever  they  are,  till 
the  sea  has  gone  down  sufficiently  to  allow  of  a  free  passage. 

Three  or  four  days  this  ominous  flag  was  fluttering  in  the  wild 
breeze,  while  the  waves  were  dashing  against  the  corals  ;  and  a 
young  English  captain,  who  had  come  in  here  to  look  for  freight, 
impatient  to  ride  out  there  before  his  anchors  in  such  weather, 
tried  to  force  his  entrance  ;  but  his  boat  filled  and  sank,  only  two 
of  his  men  being  saved,  while  he  himself,  his  second  mate,  and 
two  sailors,  I  believe,  were  drowned.  At  last  the  storm  abated, 
the  weather  became  calm,  and  the  captain  of  the  "  Patriot" — 
the  ship's  name  upon  which  I  intended  to  take  passage — rowing 
out  directly  in  his  boat  to  look  to  his  vessel,  returned  that  same 
evening  with  the  news,  the  "  Patriot"  had  sprung  a  leak,  and 
was  likely  not  to  be  fit  for  sea  for  a  long  while. 

And  so  it  was — she  drew  water  every  hour  an  inch,  not  quite 
with  her  load  in  either ;  and  as  there  is  no  place  in  Batavia  to 
repair  a  vessel,  except  the  island  of  Unrust,  a  dreadfully  dear, 
and  the  most  sickly  place  at  the  same  time  in  the  neighborhood ; 
the  "  Patriot"  would  most  likely  have  to  run  down  to  Socrabaya 
to  repair. 

It  afterward  turned  out  that  I  was  perfectly  right.  I  took  pas- 
sage in  another  vessel,  also  German,  destined  for  the  same  port, 
the  "Herder;"  and  after  having  bid  farewell  to  all  the  kind 
friends  I  had  found  and  was  to  leave  again  in  this  part  of  the 
world,  I  sent  rny  traps,  consisting  of  several  boxes,  with  Java- 
nese, Japanese,  and  Chinese  curiosities,  on  board ;  and  on  the 
27th  of  January  we  were  setting  sail,  working  on  against  the 
west  monsoon  out  of  the  Sunda  Straits,  leaving  Prince's  Island 
behind  us,  and  reaching  the  open  sea  on  the  fourth  day. 

The  "Herder"  was  a  beautiful  vessel,  going  extremely  well  on 
a  wind,  and  overtaking  all  the  ships  before  us  in  tacking  out ; 
we  were  also  fortunate  enough  to  catch  the  southeast  monsoon 
already  with  twelve  degrees  southern  latitude,  insuring  us  a  quick 
passage. 

Passing  through  the  straits,  and  opposite  Tanger,  a  small  town 
on  the  Java  shore,  several  boats  came  out  to  us  with  fruits  and 
animals,  to  take  them  along  to  a  northern  clime.  Foolishly  enough 
wo  were  persuaded  to  take  a  whole  menagerie  on  board,  consist- 


618  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE   WORLD. 

ing  of  seven  different  monkeys,  five  dwarf  deer,  I  know  not  how 
many  dozen  of  rice  birds,  some  wild  chickens,  and  a  Java  squir- 
rel, besides  fruit  enough  to  last  a  couple  of  months ;  the  sailors, 
at  the  same  time,  bringing  forth  old  shirts  and  pantaloons,  to  ex- 
change them  for  shells  and  other  curiosities. 

A  fine  breeze  we  had  to  run  down  with,  and  we  made  seven, 
eight,  and  nine  knots,  without  feeling  the  ship  move.  It  is  a 
splendid  feeling  to  run  before  a  good  breeze,  not  too  weak,  and 
not  too  strong,  all  sails  set,  over  the  smooth  or  slowly-rolling 
sea  ;  but  if  it  must  be  one  of  the  two,  I  should  always  like  it  rather 
a  little  too  strong — rather  a  reef  in  the  topsail,  than  a  skysail 
set ;  there  is  more  life  in  the  whole,  and  the  dancing  waves  are 
splendid  playmates  upon  a  long  voyage. 

The  8th  of  February,  we  overtook  a  Dutch  barque,  which  had 
her  foretop-mast  down  on  deck ;  nearly  being  up  with  her,  she 
raised  it  again,  set  all  sails,  and  away  we  went  on  a  fair  race.  I 
should  never  have  thought  it  possible  two  ships  could  sail  so 
much  alike,  for  it  was  fully  three  weeks  before  we  dropped  her 
astern  finally. 

Giving  the  isles  of  Mauritius  and  Madagascar  a  wide  berth,  to 
keep  out  of  the  typhoon's  range,  which  rage  there  sometimes  with 
wild  fury,  we  got  a  kind  of  welcome  from  the  Cape.  On  the 
5th  of  March,  a  strong  southwester  blew  in  our  teeth,  forcing  us 
to  lay  twenty-four  hours  under  close-reefed  topsails,  only  to  hold 
our  own  ;  but  on  the  morning  of  the  6th  the  wind  was  fairer 
again,  and  running  up  toward  the  land,  we  sighted  the  coast  of 
Africa  toward  evening.  It  was  a  dark  chain  of  hills,  the  slopes 
nearly  all  overgrown  with  a  brown  dry  grass,  as  it  seemed,  only 
here  and  there  showing  still  darker  patches  of  forest,  contrasting 
sharply  against  the  lighter  background.  But  the  whole  coast 
seemed  to  be  on  fire,  and  every  where  we  could  see  the  smoke 
rise  up  ;  ay,  in  one  place,  where  a  nearly  square  place  was  mark- 
ed out,  a  quantity  of  dark  objects  (houses  most  likely)  were  also 
burning ;  and  we  thought  we  could  recognize  around  these  a 
wide  and  square  kraal,  but  it  was  too  far  distant  yet  to  make 
any  correct  observations,  even  with  a  good  glass. 

A  splendid  spectacle  was  the  sea,  in  its  wild  beauty,  with  its 
dark-green  waves,  here  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  land  ;  and  the 
snowy  crests,  rolling  in  the  moonlight  nights,  as  liquid  silver 
upon  the  dark,  sparkling  masses.  And  higher  and  higher  the 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  BATAVIA.  619 

sea  rose,  sharper  and  sharper  the  wind  came — a  perfect  gale  at 
last — forcing  us  down  farther  to  the  south,  while  another  wester 
threatened  to  throw  us  back  in  our  track.  Fully  four  days  we 
had  to  tack  about  here,  backward  and  forward,  with  close-reefed 
topsails ;  ay,  even  ready  once  to  take  down  the  top-gallant 
masts,  to  get  them  and  the  ship  out  of  harm's  way.  I  had  never 
in  my  life  seen  such  a  sea  running  :  we  could  go  no  more  about 
with  the  ship  in  the  wind,  but  had  to  veer. 

We  were  loaded  down  with  rice  and  sugar,  going  rather  deep 
in  the  water ;  but  still  the  ship  behaved  excellently,  keeping  so 
steady  that,  during  the  first  two  days  of  the  gale,  I  continued  to 
write,  as  1  had  done  all  the  way ;  but  the  third  and  fourth  day 
she  commenced  to  pitch  and  roll  rather  too  strongly,  and  I  had 
to  give  it  up,  my  breast  hurting  rne  already,  from  leaning  against 
the  table. 

Here  I  ought  not  to  forget  to  mention  the  writing  materials  I 
have  used  on  my  road,  and  which  consisted  in  a  map  of 
"  Wedgwood's  Manifold  Writer."  I  have  carried  that  map  with 
me  over  the  Cordilleras,  through  the  snow,  and  I  have  proved  it 
in  the  hot  and  sultry  clime  of  Batavia,  without  finding  the  least 
change  in  it.  There  is,  in  fact,  nothing  handier  in  the  world 
than  these  manifold  writers  to  carry  about  with  one,  underways, 
while  the  writing  itself,  with  that  steel  pencil,  is  clear,  easy,  and 
agreeable  to  use.  I  have  found  it  an  exceedingly  practical  in- 
vention, and  was  really  thankful  for  it.  But  a  fair  warning  also 
is  necessary  for  those  who  wish  to  provide  themselves  with  such 
a  writing  material,  to  procure  for  themselves,  if  they  possibly  can 
get  it,  "  R.  Wedgwood's  Manifold  Writer."  In  California,  as 
well  as  in  Sydney — in  Adelaide  there  were  none  at  all — I  have 
searched  the  whole  place  to  get  some  new  copy-books  and  some 
ink-paper  of  the  same  firm — there  were  none  to  be  got,  except 
from  some  other  fabric  ;  and  since  I  had  to  take  them  (for  I 
could  not  do  well  without),  I  found  them  far  inferior  to  Wedg- 
wood's. The  paper  in  the  copy-books  tearing  easy,  of  not  so  light 
a  color,  and  running  your  ink,  if  you  wanted  to  correct  something 
in  it — which  you  can  do  as  much  as  you  please  in  Wedgwood's 
copying-books — and  the  ink-paper  also  not  answering  half  as 
well,  it  became  dry  immediately,  and  did  not  give  out  the  fourth- 
part  as  many  sheets. 

Up  to  the  13th  of  March,  the  storm,  which  had  settled  over 


620  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

to  the  west-northwest,  raged.  The  sea  looked  beautiful,  partic- 
ularly on  the  night  of  the  llth,  when  the  white  foam  was  really 
a  perfect  sheet  of  flame,  rolling  on  against  the  vessel,  and  throw- 
ing its  fiery  sparks  high  into  the  air.  Large  fire-balls  were  at 
the  same  time  swimming  in  the  water,  and  in  the  wake  of  the 
ship.  Our  brave  craft  looked  like  a  giant  comet,  shooting  its 
mad  career,  the  fiery  trail  dragging  behind,  through  the  enraged 
waters,  and  kindling  the  storming  waves,  as  it  were,  by  its  touch. 
The  wind  was  howling  at  the  same  time  through  the  shrouds  and 
blocks,  driving  the  fine  dust  of  the  crests  like  a  glowing  vail  over 
the  deep. 

With  this,  we  had  the  most  singular  formation  of  the  clouds, 
while  a  fresh  hand  seemed  to  have  taken  the  bellows  on  the  night 
of  the  12th.  The  sun  had  been  down  nearly  an  hour,  it  being  at 
least  perfectly  dark  upon  the  waters,  when  suddenly  in  the  west 
again  a  glowing  red  sun  appeared,  but  with  a  dull,  gloomy 
light,  close  above  the  horizon,  rising  slowly,  instead  of  sinking, 
and  disappearing  again  after  a  few  minutes.  The  light  this 
sun  threw  over  the  enraged  deep,  with  the  howling  of  the 
storm,  and  the  deep  growling  of  the  waves,  was  indescribable. 
Our  German  seamen  call  this  appearance  "  a  foreign  sun," 
arising  only  from  an  opening  in  the  heavy  and  dark  clouds, 
just  large  enough  to  allow  a  glance  at  the  clear  and  yet  sunlit 
sky  behind. 

On  the  16th,  at  last,  the  weather  began  to  clear  up,  the  wind 
was  veering  aft,  and  with  all  sails  set — ay,  even  studding  sails — 
as  quick  as  the  sea  had  gone  down,  enough  to  allow  our  carrying 
them,  we  were  doubling  the  Cape,  and  running  up  now  to  the 
northwest,  before  a  fine  arid  rattling  breeze. 

"  Sail  ho  !"  a  man  called  down  from  the  yards  on  the  morning 
of  the  17th :  it  was  a  barque  under  close-reefed  topsails,  working, 
as  we  thought  first,  into  the  wind's  eye,  but  no,  coming  nearer 
with  all  sails  set,  even  to  top-gallant  studding-sails,  which  we 
had  to  take  down  again,  only  leaving  the  top  ones  standing.  We 
overtook  the  barque,  which  proved  an  English  vessel  from  London 
(the  name  we  were  not  able  to  make  out)  running,  one  course 
with  us,  under  such  short  sails,  before  the  wind.  When  they  saw 
us  come  up,  as  if  ashamed  of  themselves  to  be  caught  napping 
that  way,  they  shook  lazily  a  reef  out  of  their  topsails,  and  we  were 
soon  dropped  astern.  That  poor  captain  must  have  had  nobody 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  BAT  AVI  A.  621 

at  home  he  wanted  to  see  again,  or  else  he  would  not  have  lost 
that  splendid  opportunity  to  get  along. 

The  tenth  day,  after  passing  the  Cape,  we  came  in  sight  of  St. 
Helena,  running  by  just  after  dark,  in  a  beautiful  moonlight  night, 
without  going  in  though ;  we  had  water  enough  on  board,  and 
our  captain  was  hurrying  home,  as  fast  as  he  could.  Next  morn- 
ing the  land  lay  only  as  a  dark  stripe  behind  us. 

From  here  the  trade-winds  became  weaker  and  weaker  every 
day,  the  sea  lay  nearly  as  quiet  as  a  mill-pond  arid  we  were  still 
running  smoothly  and  slowly  along. 

Our  ship  was  newly  painted  at  that  time  ;  and,  dear  reader,  if 
you  never  have  been  on  board  a  vessel  while  such  doings  are 
going  on,  it  would  be  in  vain  to  try  to  give  you  a  just  idea  of  it. 
The  deck  being  paid  with  grease  and  varnish  and  turpentine, 
small  boards  are  leading  across  it,  like  over  an  abyss,  and  if  you 
do  make  a  mis-step,  you  stick  surely,  and  may  call  for  help  as 
soon  as  you  please  to  get  "  torn  off"  again.  Where  else  you  could 
step,  there  is  a  pot  with  paint  or  varnish  standing ;  every  thing 
is  painted,  you  dare  touch  no  spot,  without  taking  the  traitor 
away  with  you,  and  having  captain  and  mate  growl  at  you  the 
whole  day ;  you  can  sit  nowhere,  not  even  on  Sundays,  in 
peace. 

At  the  same  time  all  little  staircases  and  steps  are  taken  away, 
wherever  you  want  to  step  down,  you  have  to  feel  first  with  one 
foot  for  a  ladder,  being  unable  to  hold  on  the  while  any  where  ; 
and  do  you  tumble  down  on  such  a  spot  for  once — not  an  impos- 
sible case — you  are  dead  certain  to  land  in  some  painting-bucket, 
or  upon  the  stone  where  the  colors  are  ground,  a  sight  afterward 
for  the  whole  crew ;  you  may  consider  yourself  fortunate  if  you 
have  no  bones  broken  into  the  bargain.  But  you  get  so  used  to 
such  a  state  of  suspense,  as  I  may  call  it,  that  after  awhile  not 
to  touch  any  thing,  even  considering  at  table  sometimes  for  half 
a  minute,  whether  knives  and  forks  have  not  had  a  fresh  coat. 

Crossing  the  line,  under  13°  W.  Ion.,  rather  more  to  the  east 
than  ships  generally  go,  we  got  into  the  region  of  calms,  which 
seemed  to  be  determined  to  keep  us  there.  On  the  10th  of  April, 
the  sea  glowed  with  a  fire,  I  had  had  no  idea  could  be  possible. 
There  was  not  a  breath  of  air  stirring ;  but  the  ocean  glistened 
with  myriads  of  stars,  while  a  splendor,  indescribable,  appeared 
on  the  least  movement  the  seemingly  electric  fluid  made.  As 


622  JOURNEY  HOUND  THE  WOULD. 

thousands  of  diamonds  upon  dark-blue  velvet,  in  the  reflection  of 
an  ocean  of  light,  so  it  sparkled  and  glowed  ;  and  I  could  not 
tear  myself  away  for  hours  from  that  sight.  Late  in  the  night, 
right  in  the  west,  we  saw  on  the  horizon  exkctly  such  a  light 
spot — close  above  the  water — as  a  large  fire  on  shore  would 
make  ;  but  the  phenomenon  coming  nearer,  showed  only  a  small 
rain-shower — the  surface  of  the  water  streaming  out  of  the  light, 
where  the  rain-drops  touched  it.  A  shoal  of  fish,  passing  us 
slowly,  were  swimming  in  a  perfect  sheet  of  fire  ;  and  where  one 
of  them,  maybe,  struck  the  water  up  with  its  tale,  it  made  the 
sparks  fly  as  out  of  a  furnace.  Next  night  there  came  a  little 
breeze,  and  the  water  looked  still  lighter  ;  but  that  quiet  splendor 
was  gone. 

With  calms  and  light  breezes,  slowly — oh,  how  slowly  working 
up ! — we  reached  the  Azores  on  the  9th  of  May,  and  passed 
through  them.  From  there  a  tolerably  good  breeze  brought  us 
nearly  to  the  Scilly  Isles,  and  in  three  days  more,  a  good  steady 
breeze  would  have  taken  us  home.  But  no,  we  could  have  no 
such  luck  :  from  the  18th  to  the  28th  of  May,  a  flying  north- 
easter was  blowing  in  our  very  teeth.  Tediously  we  worked  up 
to  Land's  End  and  the  Lizards  ;  breakfasting  in  the  morning  near 
the  English  coast,  and  taking  our  tea  at  night  near  the  French ; 
all  the  time  under  close-reefed  topsails,  with  the  pleasure  to  see 
the  "  'fore  the  winders,"  as  they  passed  us,  wing  and  wing.  Only 
on  the  29th,  the  weather  clearing  up  a  little,  we  could  lay  half 
a  point  higher  up,  for  the  first  time  ;  and  from  there  the  wind 
changed. 

Here,  I  may  say,  as  well  as  not,  a  few  words  to  the  memory 
of  our  menagerie.  It  was  gone  entirely  ! — the  monkeys  dying 
away  one  at  the  Cape,  and  the  rest  between  the  Azores  and  the 
Channel ;  one  of  the  dwarf  deers  even  living  till  opposite  Ply- 
mouth, in  spite  of  the  cold  weather.  The  wild-chicken  flew 
overboard  in  pure  despair ;  and  the  squirrel  committed  suicide 
in  a  dark  hour,  by  hanging  itself  between  the  wires  of  its  cage. 
Of  all  that  quantity  of  living  things,  we  only  brought  a  few  rice- 
birds  alive  to  Bremen. 

On  this  afternoon,  we  got  a  Plymouth  pilot  on  board.  The 
man  told  me  the  most  dreadful  stories  about  the  Channel,  to 
frighten  me  from  board,  to  go  with  him  ashore,  and  take  the  land 
route  to  London  ;  but  it  would  not  do.  Here  we  heard  the  first 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  BATAVIA.  623 

news  again,  after  having  been  one  hundred  and  twenty-three 
days  at  sea.  Louis  Napoleon  was  President,  and  expected  Em- 
peror !  And  Germany  ?  Dear  reader,  never  ask  that  question 
again — at  least,  not  for  a  good  while  yet. 

With  a  light,  but  good  breeze,  we  passed  the  English  coast — 
with  what  feelings,  I  should  in  vain  try  to  picture.  But  the  sun 
shone  upon  European  shores  again,  the  flags  of  all  our  neighbors 
fluttered  in  the  fresh  and  favorable  breeze,  and  those  sails  were 
set,  at  last,  for  home.  The  Channel  was  crowded  with  a  perfect 
fleet  of  vessels,  all  having  been  kept  out  by  that  stormy  north- 
easter ;  and,  as  a  flight  of  birds  in  the  evening  time  to  their  nests, 
we  were  striving  for  our  own  hearths  and  homes. 

That  same  fine  breeze  brought  us  on  till  clear  before  the  mouth 
of  the  Weser ;  and  though  the  wind  changed  again  here,  and  we 
had  to  go  about  a  couple  of  times  to  make  the  entrance,  what 
matter  to  us  now — those  coasts  were  Germany,  every  sandy  nook 
known  on  the  wide  coast,  and  every  church-steeple  recognized 
and  remembered.  Oh,  how  gloomy  those  places  had  looked  when 
I  bad  them  farewell,  and  how  joyfully  they  were  glittering  now 
in  the  morning  sun,  as  farther  and  farther  up  the  old  stream  we 
worked.  Now  we  had  passed  the  first,  the  second  ton,  and  from 
that  moment  to  many,  many  weeks  afterward,  memory  nearly 
lost  its  power  in  that  immensity  of  bliss.  I  only  remember  as  in 
a  dream  yet,  the  first  watchman  I  heard  that  night  in  Bremen ; 
the  first  time  those  old  loved  church-bells  rung  their  sweet  voices 
again  into  my  ears.  I  remember  going  on  a  railroad,  and  shut- 
ting my  eyes  at  the  same  time,  happy  in  the  thought  of  not  being 
able  to  think  this  a  mocking  dream,  and  a  crowd  of  sweet  and 
happy  faces  were  around  me.*  But  I  could  give  no  account  of 
that. 

Oh,  there  are  rich  stores  of  beauty  out  in  that  fair  world  ; 
there  are  treasures  heaped  up  in  the  wilderness  by  the  hand  of 
our  loving  Father  to  gladden  the  heart  of  the  beholder,  and  make 
him  stand  in  mute  astonishment,  a  witness  of  such  a  Paradise ; 
there  are  kind  eyes  and  hearts  strewn  over  that  wide  world, 
stretching  out  their  hands  to  the  way-worn  stranger  and  bidding 
him  welcome  ;  there  is  happiness  in  those  valleys,  and  peace  and 
love  wherever  your  foot  is  turned — if  your  own  heart  only  touches 
the  right  spring  to  open  those  treasures — but  let  it  be  as  rich,  as 
ever  it  will,  let  it  dazzle  your  eyes  and  overpower  your  mind  for 


624  JOURNEY  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

awhile,  it  can  not  last ;  and  whatever  you  try,  wherever  you 
roam — be  it  as  far,  be  it  as  long  as  you  will — that  one  thought, 
if  it  leave  you  for  ah  wile,  it  never  will  die  within  you ;  and  if 
your  lips  are  forbid  to  speak  it ;  your  heart  will  sound  with  low, 
but  powerful  voice  into  your  ear: 

"  Be  it  ever  so  humble, 
There's  no  place  like  home  !" 


THE   END. 


CALIFORNIA 


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